Barai
by Sunruner
Summary: 1/3 "Gods don't bleed" is law in Ayuthay, but the Eclipse changed everything and her prince can't change it back. The Alchemy Well is under attack, Barai Temple has been violated, and Amiti is left with only two painful choices: save his city, or himself. Re-written June 2013.
1. A Broken Well and Blasted Rafts

**Altin Peak's Flood****, ****Frozen in Prox****.**

**Hello! And welcome to the re-write of **_**Kingmaker Pt. 1: Barai.**_** If you're a return reader, Barai now has several new scenes, no more stupid red-herring in the middle, and slightly more consistent characterization for King Paithos. I will admit however: the King is still rather OOC. There are just some plots a re-write can't fix.**

**That's all for me, now please enjoy my fic!**

* * *

_**Barai**_

A Broken Well and Blasted Rafts

"If the Alchemy Well isn't working, then we have to fix it as soon as we can." Captain Piers, a mercury adept known the world over. One of the Warriors of Vale despite never having seen the Angaran town before it was destroyed, he was one of the world's elites: an incredibly powerful man.

He walked like it too. Amiti couldn't help but notice how the man could move like a king through a palace that didn't belong to him at all. He was a Lemurian, one of the sea-faring people whose yellow eyes and cerulean hair attracted so much attention whenever they travelled away from their native shores. Amiti himself had been mistaken for one in Tonfon: only his green eyes had given the Sanan shipwright's pause, a strange colour for a Lemurian, they'd said.

But his gait: Captain Piers had that flat-footed sailor's swagger, using his arms and shoulders as much as legs and hips to keep moving in a straight, powerful line. A lazuli-shade jacket framed his body comfortably over an aqua tunic and black pants, different from a Champa pirate as he wore thick boots made of scaly hide rather than sandals. Both the jacket and boots were edged and topped in gold. They matched the headdress he wore around his temples as well: a deep lazuli curtain protecting his neck and nape from the sun with a gold band to keep it securely in place. His aquamarine hair was braided and tossed over the headdress, the ends fried brilliantly white from the combination of sun and salt.

Amiti knew he was looking too closely, knew that had been the case since the Lemurian captain had arrived, but he couldn't help it. King Paithos had welcomed him so happily, spoken so much of how long it had been since the captain had visited Ayuthay- of course Amiti had to watch him. How many Mercury adepts travelled the world alone? How many had such indescribable powers? Even as they walked with Amiti only half a step behind Piers, Rief and Nowell right on their heels through the palace, the prince could feel the water in the humid air straining to reach out to the older adept.

Part of him knew there should be resentment in his heart, but the rest of him really couldn't bear it. The Captain probably hadn't even known what had happened when Princess Veriti died...

"Do you have any idea what's wrong with it?"

"We won't know until we get there, Nowell."

"No one asked _you!" _Glancing back at the siblings, Amiti frowned as he watched Nowell turn on her younger brother. The reunion had been unexpected, the captain and Nowell had appeared in Ayuthay only a few days before Amiti and Rief had returned from Belinsk. The tension was clearly obvious between the pair, not simply for the growth in Psynergy Rief had experienced through their quest, but the way Nowell continued to behave around Piers. The prince wasn't really sure how he felt watching the captain smile as the young girl- younger than _Amiti_ at least- fawned and struck up constant menial conversations with him, offering to do things for him which felt out of place without being deemed inappropriate. Her infatuation was obvious, as was Rief's discomfort. Amiti couldn't judge on his own: he had no siblings, or even cousins to associate the feeling with.

"Please, for now shouldn't we keep moving?" He asked, interrupting the argument as there was a notecable drop in temperature between the pair. Rief stopped scowling long enough to push his thick round glasses back up his nose where they'd slipped, the full-moon spectacles catching a bit of the light inside their black wire frames. He had left his heavy Imilian robe behind that morning in the palace suite provided for him, wearing only his geometrically-pattered blue tunic, belt, black pants and boots in Ayuthay's crushing humidity. Rief looked like he was baking; even the serpentine ankh in his hand seemed to react poorly to the heat.

Nowell had it a little easier, her cerulean hair braided into two long tails sprouting from behind her round face and falling down her back. She was more partial to purples and lilacs than her brother's bluer wardrobe: a silk wrap swathed her body in Ayuthay's style. But Amiti could tell just from the way she moved that despite the heat she must have been wearing at least two of them, even the humidity couldn't keep someone from the far north from dressing in layers.

The four of them entered the inner city a few moments later. There were fewer people living permanently down here beneath the lake now that the Eclipse had ended and the Kaocho invasion was undeniably over. But still, even in the short time it had taken word to reach the palace and for the adepts to emerge where they were now, it was clear panic wasn't far off. Looking up one could see the great dome which kept the lake water from spilling down and flooding the core, but instead of the refreshing blue of the water the entire square with its short, staggered buildings was bathed in pale yellow light from the broken Well.

Even with this, or perhaps because of it, the four of them were even harder to miss than normal. Each of them had their unique hair to contend with and the light turned it almost green. Coupling that with the gold around Amiti's arms and woven through his clothes, and he quickly stepped up to the small crowd that began to form in their path.

"_Highness! The Well stopped working, what's going on?"_

"_If the water won't return what will we do? There's only so much here!"_

"_First the sun, now the water? Majesty it's too hot! Don't let the springs dry!"_

"My people, please." He lifted a hand in front of them, letting the gold pieces on his wrist catch the light and their attention at the same time. He could feel Rief and Nowell watching him, but made sure not to look back at any of them as he gestured slowly for the throng to part, offering the calmest smile he could at an older woman standing near the front of the crowd. Always identify, he could remember Paithos telling him as much. From the woman he turned his smile to a young man, a little bit older than Amiti himself, but not by much.

"These Adepts are my friends and yours as well." He said calmly, moving just enough so the few gold trinkets across his chest reflected the light, the yellow silk just increasing the effect. They still believed him divine, it kept their attention and gave them something familiar to hold on to. Amiti felt the weight of his broad crown on his forehead, nodding deliberately to allow the gold to shine around his face. "If the water has receded, then perhaps it is because the Well has been put into reverse: just as Matthew did when you allowed him into Barai Temple." A person has a long memory, people do not. Always reassure and repeat what they already know, otherwise they won't find the comfort they so readily seek in you.

'_I'm better at this now, I think.'_ Speaking had always been an easier task for him than certain others, but even a trained prince could feel the strain of difficult times. Amiti remembered being almost at the end of his rope during the Kaocho invasion, practically barred from speaking to large groups because he had turned from Paithos' message of calm to something more reactionary. Still, dealing first with an invasion and then with the horrors of the Eclipse, Amiti couldn't really blame _anybody_ for being afraid of their shadow or some dysfunctional part of their day.

"You're very good at reading them." Looking up as the captain addressed him, they were moving again quickly through the core, taking the stone stairs lightly and just a little out of sync with the other two behind. There was a brief flash of something in those gold eyes, but Amiti couldn't catch it, nodding slowly with another crafted smile as he listened to the taller adept speak: "And you're right, from what your uncle told me the Well goes into reverse whenever the water is removed. I thought it constantly replenished itself, but if not then it won't be too hard to fix."

What colour had Veriti's eyes been? Amiti would have to ask his uncle, but not before this was taken care of.

Ever since Amiti could remember, the Alchemy Well had been a place that was absolutely sacred to their city. The air just hummed inside, constantly. Some people had begun to complain during the Eclipse that the noise had been driving them insane, but Amiti put it down to their own nerves and the stress of the times. No one could be truly disturbed by the constant hum of the light and surging force of the channels underfoot. It was the only place in Ayuthay where there was no humidity at all, and where the heat could never follow because the air was much too cool.

"Ugh, this is definitely where we should be staying." Nowell exclaimed as they arrived and moved through the vaulted doors into the cool interior. She took a deep breath of the dry air and puffed it back out between her cheeks as Rief said something similar, something about the Khiren glacier which made Amiti slowly frown.

The Khiren glacier across the Air Passage from Ayuthay. Amiti'd never been so cold in his life, and if it hadn't been so important for them to sail north to Imil he absolutely never would have gone. Ice was a parlour trick, perhaps a weapon, but not a way of life.

_'I think I like it better this way.' _Maybe feeling the water around him constantly wasn't what most considered comfortable, even in Ei-jei, but it was home. And it wasn't _cold_.

"Well, this looks bad." Pulled from his thoughts as he looked up at where the captain had gone, Piers was ahead of him with Nowell close behind. Rief had paused and was waiting for him when Amiti snapped out of it and quickly jogged up onto the platform.

"No! Who would do something like this?" The dish which held the psynergy-sprung water had been shattered, the clay pieces spread across the tiled, yellow-stained floor as the eternal liquid lay still on the floor, refusing to evaporate or wipe away. It made the prince angry to see, a tight knot of frustration tying itself up in his chest. Petty vandalism, _here? _"This will not be tolerated."

"But at least it can be repaired, right?" Rief was looking between him and Piers, expecting one of them to answer. Amiti felt himself nod shortly, but then turned and swiftly moved back down the stairs.

"You there, who was on duty when this happened?" One of Ayuthay's guards was standing there, a bashful look overcoming his bronze face, and Amiti had to purse his lips tightly to keep from repeating the question as a demand.

"No one, sire."

"_No one?_"

"It was a change in the guard, Majesty. The damage was already done when I arrived, and the man before me was the one who went up to the palace to alert the court." Of course it would work out that way. And if someone was lying it would be next to impossible to properly work out who it was or about what. It would have to go to Paithos to decide.

"Yes, I think that's good. Amiti!" Hearing his name, the Prince tried to swallow the bitter feelings that came up with the foolish mistake in security, gesturing quickly with one hand to send the man back to his post for the time being. Turning, he saw the others coming back towards the door, a larger piece of the shattered pottery in Nowell's hands.

"Yes?"

"Does this look like Passaj workmanship to you?" She asked, holding out the glazed clay so he could look it over. It actually wasn't clay at all now that he could see the fracture up close: but a dark blue rock flecked with spots of white quartz. He nodded to them.

"Yes, this looks almost exactly like a lot of the stone-work around Passaj. I'll write to Bhagi immediately." Piers was nodding slowly at this, seemingly pleased but not saying anything right away. It kept Amiti from feeling completely comfortable right away, not sure what the older adept was thinking. Quickly pushing on, the Prince added. "But this doesn't answer who did the damage in the first place. Now isn't the time for dissidence, so if you'll help me I would like to try and find whoever's responsible."

"Of course." Rief answered, nodding slowly and resting the ankh against his shoulder so he could fold his arms for a moment. "They didn't just shut off the Well by doing this, they actually put it in reverse."

"People need to have more respect for these ancient machines." Chiming in with her part, Nowell's blue eyes looked darker than normal as she sat her hands down on her hips, tapping one sandal-shod foot in irritation. "The Well's the whole reason why Ayuthay's even here today. The city probably wouldn't have survived the Eclipse as well as it did without the underwater core." Wincing a little as she put it so bluntly, Amiti shook his head a little to clear it, rubbing the back of his head slowly where the weight of his crown was beginning to irritate him.

"Before we go any further, what actually happens when the well goes into reverse?" All three of them glanced up at the captain as he spoke, the prince feeling slightly relieved that the older man was speaking again, but he really didn't know. "The Well regulates Ayuthay's water supply normally, so what happens when it's like this?" Amiti nodded.

"The lake level drops, and since it's the middle of the day that probably means most of the city's ferries and fishing boats are probably stranded in the deeper parts now."

"But that means the tower to Barai Temple is accessible?" Amiti nodded again, watching Piers slip his hands into the pockets of his wide jacket and glance around. "This place is as beautiful as I remember... If the wrong colour." Well, of course the yellow light wasn't flattering, but wasn't that a little off-topic? Piers came back around and looked at them- rather, looked at him. "You should write your request to Passaj as soon as possible so the craftsmen there can get to work. In the meantime, if we want to figure out who did this then we should probably start by searching the areas revealed by the lower water."

"It's pretty hard to get to the temple itself..." Rief explained, but it was clear he didn't quite know how to word the statement. Was it alright to correct or even challenge a Warrior of Vale? Rief's mother was one, true, but Amiti was almost certain there was a difference here. Having Paithos for an uncle hadn't made dealing with Emperor Uhan any less stressful.

But the captain didn't seem to mind, smiling and nodding a little before extending a hand out to Amiti.

"May I?" He didn't understand for a moment, then remembered he was still holding the side of the bowl. Nowell's face briefly spoke of jealousy, but he just hoped Rief wasn't going to make a scene with her over it.

Handing the shard over, he had to wonder if Piers planned to use some sort of Psynergy on it, perhaps a technique acquired atop Mercury Lighthouse? He'd been there, hadn't he?

_'Wait, no, that was Alex.' _Ugh, not a pleasant thought.

He was quickly jarred from his thoughts as Piers to whipped the blue stone down to the floor with the full force of his arm. Rief actually jumped while Amiti did a better job of keeping his composure, but the thin stone-work just bounced off the floor as if nothing had happened, leaving a mark on the tile instead of the other way around.

"I'd say it was pretty hard to break the machine too." Demonstration, not negotiation. Maybe that was how a travelling legend found easy audiences with Kings and Emperors. Nodding first to the captain, then to Rief and Nowell in turn, Amiti shifted his stance a little, hand at his belt and fingers hovering close to the short knife hanging there.

"Give me two hours to send the letter and specifics, and then we can all meet at the southern staircase here in the core. Rief will show you the way." Another nod to his friend, this time confirming that he still remembered the way through Ayuthay's staircases and corridors. Rief seemed willing enough, and with a grim smile Amiti turned and left the Alchemy well behind.

* * *

Two hours later, they were on the water.

"This was much faster with Karis' help."

"I imagine so. _Push!"_

"How long for a proper boat?"

"My uncle said tomorrow."

"Woah, hard to port-!"

"Which one's- _Ack!_"

Fishing Rief out of Ayuthay's lake nearly cost the rest of them their dry clothes. It took all four of them, each with a long rod, to steer the old Kaocho rafts across the low waters. Even with Captain Piers' experience they still missed the entrance to Barai Temple on their first attempt, floundering around in the middle of the lake before getting it right on the pass.

Amiti could remember burning the small fleet of majestic ferry-boats during the Kaocho Invasion last year. The ferries had once shuttled people from the outlying quarters into the palace and submerged core, but it had been necessary to save space and keep the Kaocho generals from bringing too many men or supplies into the palace all at once. The effort to rebuild the fleet was well underway, but with the sudden drop in water level the two in working order were now beached on the muddy shore, useless.

The raft, several planks and logs lashed together with rope and letting plenty of water through the grooves, was just a terrible pain and inconvenience. Rief was right: it _had_ been easier to get around with Karis or Sveta there to encourage the winds to blow. Rafts had no ballast, that lower part which stayed under the surface, so there was no point in the four of them trying to get the water to move them instead: it just shot right out from under the raft instead of propelling them along properly. There were also no guards to row them: Paithos had offered but the rickety stick-and-rope vessel had argued otherwise.

"You're going be wet all day now, aren't you?"

"Yep."

Helping Piers secure the raft so it wouldn't float away while they were gone, Amiti glanced over at the siblings where Nowell was running one shimmering hand over her brother's drenched locks. Every time Rief shook his head, snow fell around his shoulders and could be combed out as she froze the water carefully, without harming his skin.

That still counted as a parlour trick.

Barai Temple had no known entrances or exits besides the spire protruding out from the lake. Even before the Well had been restored, Amiti often heard stories of initiation ceremonies where young men had to climb up the ruin after crossing the sticky mire that was now the lake-bed. Now the lonely stone tower couldn't be entered at all without lowering the water; and then there was the elevator.

"I think you were right, Captain." Which proved to be their first challenge. As soon as they entered the first chamber he and Rief caught themselves on the steep edge in front of them. Instead of a pool of clear water and a floating platform to ride on, there was nothing left but a dark, empty shaft lit by the faint, far away glow of psynergetic runes. No sign of water or the floating platform. "Someone else is in here." Nowell squirmed a little, then folded her pale arms over one another.

"An Adept?" She asked, and Rief nodded to his sister. "How do we bring it back up?"

"We needed Tyrell's psynergy to lower it." Allowing Rief to explain, Amiti set himself to work. "The reverse is easy."

Pulling his arms in and crossing his palms slowly, the water just beyond the door resonated with him for a moment, an answer echoing from the pool at the bottom of the shaft. Clearing his mind, Amiti felt the cold, chilly sensation of his psynergy pouring into his mind and cascading down his limbs. With so much water around he didn't need to focus on the humidity or try gathering it into a cloud. He simply reached behind them to the lake and drew several smooth tendrils out. With little more than a twist after this, the blue liquid was saturated with light before it spiraled down out of sight into the dim. Rief was already joining him with a second burst of water, in case the first one missed, when they heard the gushing roar of the old machines starting up and flooding the shaft again.

"Good, I was worried they'd broken this one too." Jumping onto the creamy-pink stone as the elevator returned, Rief was quickly looking over the stone bowl for any signs of attack or damage. Amiti took a moment to get there, watching Piers and then Nowell go first to make sure the latter didn't lose her footing, then he joined them. The problem now would be getting down.

"Could you step back a moment?" Obeying the captain's orders, Rief sat back on his haunches next to the bowl, the three of them watching Piers before the water inside began to sizzle, boiling away in a matter of moments.

"How did you-!"

"That was correct, wasn't it?" The same machines began to churn again, the shaft swiftly emptying as the water was evacuated from the chamber once more. Amiti felt himself staring but couldn't stop. Not only had they needed Tyrell before, but _he _had required an ancient relic to do it. The captain was just smiling at them, laughing softly as the faint light of the water reflected off his yellow eyes. "It wasn't easy to learn, if that's what you're wondering. Nowell?" Clearly he meant for her to explain, and Amiti quickly watched the interactions between them.

"It's known as _'Parch'."_ She announced clearly, folding her hands in front of her as she calmly knelt down for the rest of the ride. She kept her spine straight, bare shoulders back. "It was a secret technique Captain Piers learned in the southern ocean. _Before_ the Golden Sun Event." So not, therefore, a divine gift from the Gods. But then again...

"You two have been to Mnt. Mikage?" Amiti felt Rief glance at him, meeting his friend's eye before they both looked back at Piers and nodded. The sailor was smiling easily, nodding back. "Mikage has a sister mountain on a different archipelago. Perhaps one day you'll go there." Yes, perhaps they would.

But first they would restore the Alchemy Machine at the heart of Amiti's city.

The temple was dank inside: humid in a way even the prince didn't enjoy as they moved through the thick, hot air while watching to the cold stone walls around them. One thing Amiti noticed now was how few deviations there were in the temple's design. One chamber led to the next, and relatively speaking very few of them had any worthwhile places to hide. The light-source was difficult to locate, the water itself emitting light as they passed by pools and fountains, channels of pure lake water flowing around the edges of the rooms, or down the middle, or through paths cut into the stone walls.

"All of this must have been built at around the same time as Ayuthay's Core." Nowell remarked, pausing at one wall and running her fingertips over the carvings, or the joints in the stone where one coloured block met the next to form a pattern. Amiti looked in her direction, but then turned and stared down into another deep shaft that faced them. He exhaled sharply: someone had lowered the water here was well, meaning they were deeper inside the temple. This puzzle had taken him and Matthew hours to figure out the first time...

"Amiti?"

"Yes?" Snapping his neck around as Rief said his name, he noticed the siblings giving him a strange look before the captain gave a quick shake of the head. "Sorry, did you say something?"

"I asked if the architecture here is the same as Ayuthay's core." Nowell repeated, looking annoyed as she pinched her pink lips together in a tight bud. "You should really pay better attention, this could be important to the city's history." Amiti felt himself try to say something, but thought it better to withhold his opinion for the moment.

"I think Amiti has _only_ Ayuthay's best interests at heart, Nowell." The captain interjected, shaking his head slowly as the girl turned quickly with a stern look on her face. "The building methods can wait until later. Let's try to focus on why we're here."

"Which means finding the vandal." Amiti added, aware that his voice was sharp, but really, architecture at a time like this? At least with his previous experiences here tempered by Rief's own recollection of the puzzles, they were able to reset the one-way path again like before. As a team they moved swiftly from platform to platform until they finally emerged in one of the few remaining chambers. The monsters which had moved into the temple weren't difficult to take care of, at least not after the horrors of the Eclipse, so between the four of them only Rief was carrying a weapon forged of something greater than steel. It certainly went a lot faster this time, but Amiti could feel a headache coming on as the weight of his crown wouldn't let up over his ears.

"The aqueducts are full again." Rief pointed out, literally pointing to the tracks which ran around this deep chamber they were in not. "The device is built like Mercury Lighthouse, it's supposed to reset after a period of time." So, again, it was another sign of the trespasser.

After this there was only one room left, so as Rief stood by and quickly narrated their previous foray with the water-system, Amiti allowed himself to press on.

Sure enough, there was a whirl-pool waiting for him in the final room beyond the tall stone gate: the temple's inner sanctum just a trying dunk away. Looking up towards the nameless goddess who guarded the chamber, her face and body dominated the space that was at least three stories high, hands spread and water spilling in liquid sheets. Despite the beauty, he felt himself scowling up at the image: such a holy place should never have been violated to begin with and in a way this was almost worse than the Well.

"_Hey!_" There! He saw it by accident, looking up at the goddess and letting his gaze stray over the old doorway which led to her control room. A flash of movement: that's it! The others heard his voice, he was sure, but didn't wait before he quickly sprinted up the stairs, unable to take the original path now that the Goddess's scales were tipped to fill the aqueducts, but a heavy vine clinging to the broken wall was good enough. Anger was a good motivator and he was going to drag that person all the way back to his uncle's court!

"In the name of King Paithos, I command you to-" There was a drastic change in light between the goddess's chamber and the back room, so as he pushed himself into the doorway Amiti's eyes couldn't adjust to the darkness right away- here there was no charged, exposed water to give light, only the rays filtering in behind him revealing the grates and piping. His voice filled the room, which was good, the words spoken loud and clear for the fugitive inside to hear.

The problem was the heavy, dull pressure that gripped his chest, strangling the rest of the proclamation like a giant hand crushing his torso. Amiti felt his hand go to his sword, but what he saw were his feet shooting up in front of him- wind in his ears.

He'd been shoved? Pushed? Hit with something? It didn't matter: he was _falling._

He'd been on the highest ledge and now he was falling. His eyes cleared and he saw the goddess's white face swiftly shrinking, his arms flailing back as if there was something there to catch him, the fear of that stone floor screaming up to meet him-

"_Amiti!"_

The prince's body hit the whirl-pool and vanished.

* * *

**Edited and Reposted June 2013**


	2. Cold Water and Fairy Glass

**Mombasa! Shout (Disturbed Cover)! 528491!**

* * *

_**Barai**_

Cold Water and Fairy Glass

He was cold, and that was why he woke up.

There was white-noise surrounding him; drowning out all the pain and anything else his other senses cared to tell him, but the one thing he couldn't ignore was the cold. Something about being churned so actively through the lake and the temple while being cut off from the sunlight just _did_ something to the water, and the longer he lay there the colder Amiti felt himself become. By the time he managed to open his eyes, he thought he was blind and wasn't even sure if he was moving his arms or not.

A smaller stream of falling water had been pounding his back and shoulders, something that took a lot of energy to fight off before the prince was able to crawl free and crouch, panting as his body tried to take in the bruising pain in his chest and legs, nevermind try to stand. His thoughts felt thick and slow, his psynergy taking a few more moments before a pale blue glow circled his hands. Touching his forehead with both palms, he wasn't sure how badly was injured, but what pain he _could_ feel was centred around his head.

Carefully, once the dancing fairy-sprite ply'd away his headache, Amiti reached up behind his head and slowly undid the thick, durable clasp which kept the crown tightly fixed to his skull. It was a relief to let the weight off, slinging the heavy token over his belt and clasping it again there so he couldn't lose it.

"_What was that you said?"_

Amiti's hand flashed to his belt, fingers grasping at nothing as he found only an empty scabbard at his hip. He must have dropped the sword in his fall.

"Who's there?"

"_'In the name of King Paithos...'_ _was__ that it?"_

The voice had no centre, fluttering through the cold air and dodging the mists churned up by the cascades. It was dark down here, not pitch but still so dim it was impossible to count how many thin waterfalls lined the walls, or where the walls themselves ended. But the voice was strong, clear over the roar of the water and decidedly familiar.

"Show yourself, thief!" Drawing his dagger instead, Amiti quickly raked one hand over his head, slicking his bangs back and out of the way. Was the movement caused by the water, or had he just seen someone take a step?

"_Thief? What __have I stolen__?"_

"You damaged the Alchemy Well and have trespassed in this sacred place!" The knife in his hand didn't feel adequate. His fingers were flighty along the hilt as he flicked the blade back and forth, remembering the feel and weight of it so he could use it properly. There was an echoing laugh, a snide chuckle really, that bounced between the stone and water several times before reaching him. Deep and without remorse. Familiar? Even more so now, but in a bad way.

_"Then I am a trespasser__;__ not a thief."_

"_Semantics!"_ Pouring his concentration into the pooling water, there was a drain somewhere in the room which kept the chamber from flooding. It was difficult to keep his mind from following the network of pipes which fed the rest of the Temple, but not impossible.

"_Temper, temper...__ But if you must know, I'm… __looking for something..."_ His perseverance paid off. Distracting as the voice was, Amiti felt more than saw the flash of blue skit across the boiling surface of the water, aware of it shooting off around an unseen corner. That was where the voice was coming from.

_'Enough games.' _Frustrated, Amiti felt his jaw clenched tightly and tried to relax it, bringing that liquid part of his mind back into focus. The water reacted to his thoughts, pulling up towards him as he brought his hands together, the knife blade parallel to the floor and helping focus the energy as the same blue light traveled along its sharp edge. With a rolling motion he moved his arms and body back, a powerful surge sucking the water past his ankles before he shoved the wave out. White foam was churned up by the excited motion, and as it shot away from him it only gained more power and speed.

Taking off at a run after it, he had the knife held close to his side, blade down in his left hand, his right arm up with the elbow in front of him.

The wave reached the corner, the walls forcing the energy to fold in on itself, physics and magic combining for what should have been a knock-out blow for whoever was standing on the receiving end. Instead, Amiti came to a skidding halt as an echoing roar of water answered the wave, sharp blue light piercing the wall before it froze and shattered back in his direction. The Ice Queen gem at his neck howled loudly in his mind before a wide pillar of ice rocketed out of the pool in front of him, the prince turning his back to it as shards of ice nicked his arm and caused a small, stinging cut on his cheek. It was a small pain.

"_RI__E__F!"_ He knew who he was fighting: it was the same laugh he'd heard in Belinsk, and again at Apollo Sanctum. He was not going to win it alone.

"They can't hear you."Clawing at the air with his hands, Amiti forced one of the waterfalls to change its course, raking as much of the water into the air as he could and sending it off at his opponent, directing it behind him as he kept his back to the ice.

Despite himself Amiti swore loudly as he felt the heavy tendril strike the other adept's aura. It felt like a sword being wrenched out of his hands. Arcanus' psynergy snuffed his out and forced Amiti to lose track of the strike until it came whipping back around at him from the right. Letting his legs slide out from under him, the attack was a brittle spear of ice, impaling his pillar right over Amiti's head- where his chest had just been.

"Now..." His hesitation cost him, Amiti's heart thundering against his ribs before he felt the sharp, searing pain of ice locking him down to the floor. The water was almost as high as his elbows, swelling just before it froze and biting into his skin. His mind attacked the ice but was over-powered at once and failed to have any effect.

The falls were still roaring and Amiti could hear himself panting and grunting trying to physically break free, but Arcanus's footsteps were audible. The sound confused him in the water until he felt the ice creeping forward, looking to his left as the blue light radiated out to him. Solid ice, humming with psynergy, provided a moving platform for the other adept, his booted feet planted solidly on the smooth surface. Wide, hovering blue pants topped with the same long white tunic and its gold designs, there was a stylized 'A' on the belt that Amiti had never noticed before, almost hating himself for being close enough to see it now.

"Quite pale for an Ayuthan, aren't you?" What little light was available shone down off the metal planes of the adept's mask. He looked amused.

"_Arcanus!_"

"Yes?"

He hadn't thought past that. Clenching his jaws again, Amiti watched a trite smile form on the other man's face. Arcanus' lips were thin and pale, like the rest of him, even his one visible eye was hardly open all the way, just a shard of aquamarine set inside the slit. There was a glow in it too, faint, like the light emitted by the ice. The same colour as his hair.

"And such a filthy colour for a Mercury Adept. I'm amazed Paithos kept you." Amiti snapped his head away as fast as he could when he saw Arcanus' hand going for his hair, a flash of hate striking his heart as he whipped his eyes back and felt several lightning fast darts of water lash out of the pool around him. They only made it half-way to their target before they froze and fell out of the air into the prince's lap.

"The king-"

"Has so many bastards, so I shouldn't be surprised he fathered an adept." What-

"What?"

Another grin.

"_ALEX!"_

"Hmm?" Amiti was still staring at Arcanus as the man's attention was pulled away, staring up into the blackness where his name had come from. The prince was too stunned to answer, his anger in there somewhere but silenced as he tried making sense of the man's words. Bastard? Yes, he could accept that, he'd wrestled with it and now he simply did. But the rest was just- what? He would have begun laughing at Arcanus, just to see the adept's reaction, but there was no time.

Amiti hadn't heard or sensed a change in the water to explain what took them so long to catch up, but now there was a distinct tang of something metallic in the pool, just enough blood lingering for long enough to say something large had bled out, and not long ago. It seemed likely enough, Captain Piers blazing down from the opening above with curtains of water flipping around him like wings, the psynergy flying wild and slowing his fall until he hit the floor several feet away. Rief and Nowell were only a moment behind, breathing hard to show they'd been fighting- Nowell's wrap had a bloody gash cut into her side, and Rief's glasses were bent almost to the point of breaking.

"What a tender reunion. Did you enjoy the Leviathan?"

"You set that creature on us!" Nowell screamed, her hands glowing brilliantly around Rief's ankh. Her brother was holding Amiti's missing sword, clearly not comfortable with wielding it, but it must have been better than having he or his sister completely unarmed. "No wonder our mother hates you!"

"Nowell!" Rief looked to his sister and then back at Amiti, ignoring Arcanus for now. "Amiti, are you alright?"

"Yes, I-" No, no he wasn't. Amiti felt his face change before his back suddenly bent itself, a sudden scream ripping up his throat as several sharp, frightening pains attacked his spine. They burst out of the pillar: needles of ice cutting straight through cloth, skin, and muscle to press the bones.

"Steady, Captain." Arcanus purred, a look none of them had seen before crossing Piers' face as the captain came to an abrupt stop. "You wouldn't want to hurt Paithos' son, would you?" What? Again with that... Rief looked at him, but Amiti knew he couldn't do anything, his psynergy attacking the needles behind him but with as little effect as before. His wrists were held fast, the same as his hips and waist in the ice: he could only bend so far and trying to relax only caused the needles to dig a little deeper.

"Let him go, Alex."

"Why? I don't have what I want yet."

"_Let him go!"_

"Patience, Piers!" Arcanus almost looked affronted by this, straightening up and turning his chin to the captain. Amiti had never heard him shout before. "I thought that was what you Lemurians were so good at! Or is this why they chose you as my replacement, hm? All action, no talk?"

"You were a traitor and a coward- I was an improvement over what Saturos had with you!" Piers' sword was glowing brilliantly in the darkness, outshining the psynergy either Rief or Nowell were able to channel. His gold eyes were fixed on Arcanus, but the rest of them were watching him. Even the traitor.

"Saturos?" Arcanus sounded like he was toying with the name, testing it.

"You led four heroes to the grave, I won't let you take another!" The silence hit him then, Amiti looking straight up and realizing now that he couldn't see the waterfalls. His body was numb from the cold and screaming from the pain bleeding warmth down his back, but there was no more noise: one of them was blocking the water overhead.

No, they both were. Arcanus had no weapon to glow and channel his psynergy through, he didn't _need_ one: it was going straight through the ice and then somehow up into the increasing wall of water over their heads. They were fighting over it, ice and water colliding and churning, a heavy slurry suspended by will alone.

The captain's will. To protect him?

"Arcanus. You're wrong." Amiti's body was numb as he spoke, but there was pain there anyways. His fingers had burned when the ice closed over them and now that was just a memory, the same at his feet, at his waist. But the pain in his back wouldn't go away, the needles stuck-fast in his flesh as he felt himself shaking from both the cold and the strain of bending back the way he was. One wrong move and he wouldn't walk again, but if he said the right thing now then maybe Arcanus would leave with a limp too.

"My father is a powerful adept: my _mother_ was Princess Veriti!"

* * *

The last thing he remembered was the roar as thousands of gallons of ice and water plummeted down from the ceiling.

No, wait- the _last_ thing he remembered was the horrible pain of being struck with the flood, those other sensations were something else.

And the only thing Amiti could think of from _before_ the flood... was seeing Arcanus turn to him.

Arcanus hadn't said anything. He hadn't even finished turning before the roar began and the rest of it happened.

* * *

He heard his name once, twice... five, six, seven times- wait, they had to stop speaking over one another.

Mercury psynergy was not meant to feel warm. It was a testament to how cold he was that Amiti slowly came around to the warm sensation of water running down his back. It wasn't really water though, it was Nowell's psynergy and she'd stopped saying his name. His head was resting in her lap, which was inappropriate but-

_'But it's warm...'_ So he closed his eyes again and stayed there. He tensed when he felt his arm being moved around.

"Your hands are blue," She explained, her voice different from what he'd grown used to since meeting her. Not grating like when she spoke to Rief, not oozing honey and whatever else that was like around the captain. "Here, roll a bit." She had a hand on his shoulder and the other one cupped the side of his face. He was rolled slowly onto his back and-

"No-" His back, the ice-! He jerked one leg up trying to stop himself, bracing one numb arm against the floor-

"It's healed, you're okay." He felt her hand pressing down on the wet silk covering his chest, and, slowly… he succumbed to that touch. Amiti felt his neck bend a little with the curve of her legs, his eyes still shut as he tried to relax: a tall order. "A little sore maybe, but you're okay." He felt her removing his bracers, opening his eyes a little until he could see the pattern on her wrap, aware that she was bending over him but, well...

She started massaging his wrist and fingers with both hands, ply bringing blood to the cold digits.

"Try and move your fingers for me?" Rief wasn't there, this was okay.

"What happened…?"

"We came running when we heard your voice." She explained, sounding pleased for a second when

he wrapped his fingers around her wrist. She had small hands. "Then you fell like a rag-doll into the whirlpool- no, it was more like you were _launched_ into it. What hit you?"

"I didn't see..." So he should have been more careful. She didn't seem to notice that he was still holding onto her, Nowell's fingers moving between his, still glowing. She was just checking his dexterity.

"Well, Rief was telling us how to get down there and Captain Piers was ready to just dive in when suddenly this... _thing_..."

"…Leviathan?" He'd heard the name before.

"Yes. I think it was the summon."

"Ayuthay's guardian is the tree, not the serpent..." So definitely a summon. Nowell set his arm down on his chest again, Amiti not fighting as she took off his other bracer and started doing the same thing with that hand too. Her skin was much paler than his.

"You fought him all by yourself." She said slowly, and he half-wondered where Piers and Rief had gone off too. They weren't still down in the darkness, Amiti could see the bright light which accompanied the higher rooms. They were back in the Goddess's chamber. "Were you frightened?"

Terrified.

"No. It had to be done." But he'd made a horrible mess of it. He'd let himself get caught, be held hostage... "My head." Wincing slightly, he half-lifted his hand up to touch his forehead, his skull beginning to pound. But Nowell beat him to it with both her hands resting on the sides of his face, thumbs up over his forehead and glowing for a moment before the psynergy began to eat away at the pain. He sighed without meaning to, it felt good. It felt warm.

"What did you say to Alex?" She asked, but only after a few more moments had passed by. Amiti knew he should sit up now, but didn't move- didn't want to move. Rief wasn't here.

"Hm?"

"You said _'Arcanus'_, something else, and then it happened."

"What did?" She had warm hands...

"Alex lost his focus." Oh, that voice wasn't Nowell's. Amiti's eyes opened properly as he heard footsteps and then Piers' voice. Rief was only a step behind the captain, his ankh in hand once more and one fist planted firmly on his side. The look said more than enough and Amiti removed his head from Nowell's lap. He also noticed his sword laying next to him and as he rested on his knees for a moment, he grabbed the weapon, returning it to his side where it belonged. He needed another moment before he could stand.

"Try not to move so fast." Nowell was right behind him as he straightened his legs slowly, but didn't touch him again. Giving her a smile and nodding to her, Amiti looked back at Piers.

The captain was looking at him closely, studying him in fact, but Amiti couldn't figure out why or what had captured the man's attention. Had he heard, perhaps, so now he knew what Amiti did about Veriti? Well, it wasn't how he had wanted to broach the subject, but it would have to work. One thing Amiti did know for sure though was that the captain was tired, it was in his gold eyes and written into the way he held himself. Psynergy on that level wasn't easy to accomplish, it must have drained him.

"Let's go back to the palace, we'll talk there." And with that Piers was gone but Rief lingered, watching Amiti take a few steps before he spoke up. His expression was neutral again, more concerned than anything.

"Do you feel alright? You were bleeding a lot."

"Nothing food and some rest won't fix. What happened?" And together the three of them began walking, resetting traps and puzzles along the way.

"Alex fled, Piers says he couldn't have died. Do you know what he wanted?" Amiti shook his head, although he _had_ said- well, that could wait for later. "You scared us that's for sure, the captain didn't expect Alex to just _stop_ fighting him, so all of it just spilt over onto that side of the room. It knocked you out right away, so we thought..." Rief drifted off, Amiti not asking why since he knew what sort of look was on his face. He could feel an uncomfortable twinge running up and down his spine, and it caused him to twist a little to make it go away.

The rest of their return was spent in silence, minus their time on the lake where first Nowell tried to convince him to just sit there and let them row, and then Piers simply took the rod away and tossed it into the water. He stopped arguing after that, just laid down on the raft and let them do the work.

"What's that?" Looking up a few minutes later, Amiti saw Nowell looking at him. For a moment he didn't know what she meant, then followed her eyes down to his hand. He'd replaced the bracers and had also retrieved his knife, but right now he was holding the soft, gold-stitched yellow pouch that always hung at his side. Sitting up again, there was another small twinge in his back but he ignored it for now, crossing his ankles as he opened the small, slim pouch and pulled out what was inside.

"This is Ayuthay's Insight Glass." He explained, holding up the tiny piece of fairy-glass framed in gold filigree. "Karis said it was something like what her father could do with Jupiter psynergy, but this works almost as well I think." No higher than his thumb and only a little bit longer, there had been times during their travels where he'd fretted about the glass breaking, but never about losing it. He slept with it, ate with it, trained with it, fought with it. Constantly.

"Can I see?" He smiled at her, letting a few teeth show before he set it down in her palm. He knew what would happen before it touched her, but didn't say anything. "...!"

"It's okay, you didn't break it."

"I- it just-"

"It's very selective." Chuckling at the bashful look on her face, Nowell didn't hand the Glass back right away. When Amiti's hand left it the square darkened, turning pitch black and completely opaque. Rief had had a similar reaction to it in the beginning, but either his curiosity about the response had waned or simply stumped him. After a few moments of examination, she handed it back to him and Amiti returned it to its place.

"Uh-oh."

"Mmm... You should put your crown back on, Amiti." Looking up as first Rief and then Piers spoke up, Amiti leaned over around their legs so he could see what the trouble was. Ah, a crowd of people from the city were gathered on the shore... Maybe his uncle was there as well? "Help him, Nowell."

"Yes sir!"

"Huh, I don't need-" Rief made bickering with Nowell look a lot easier than it actually was, the prince backing down as soon as she got her hands on the heavy crown and undid it from his belt.

Her tender hands had also vanished from before, and Amiti was left nursing a sore spot on his scalp once she was finished doing the buckle up on a lock of his hair. He fixed it again while she wasn't looking, checking his wrists and ankles to make sure they had properly regained their colour. Then he remembered something. "Nowell, my back."

"What? Is it hurting?" No, it wasn't, but he did need her help for a moment. She confirmed that there was blood staining the silk slung over his torso, and with only a little difficulty the decorative silk was pulled off. He slung his blue shirt over his arm then used the discarded silk to hide it. He wasn't sure what that look on Nowell's face was for, but Rief was taking pains _not_ to look at him. Well, it didn't matter: their version of modesty was meant for frigid temperatures. For now, Amiti was trying to prepare himself to face the crowd for them again.

Paithos was waiting for them on the shore, carried on a golden chair held up by several servants. The seat weighed more than the king did, but the sight was impressive enough that the crowds were subdued. In fact, it only took a few formal words and an exclamation that their party must be tired and should return to the palace before they were on their way. Amiti left their small group to assume his place directly behind his uncle's chair as the procession returned to the palace. He was aware that the other three would be shuttled off to a fine meal and baths before they could follow him to the throne-room with the rest of the court.

But it was not the kind of homecoming Amiti could have hoped for from his uncle. King Paithos didn't speak directly to him for the entire walk back to the palace, and stepped down off his chair once they were sheltered under the shade of cool stones and long, square castle corridors. He was debating something, mulling over an issue in his mind and not saying anything. Amiti only knew he was involved because his uncle was so painfully silent, but then still gestured with one hand for the prince to follow closely after him. They were not alone, but when Amiti drew close enough to see the grim look on the King's face, he heard a low voice speak to him sternly.

"You're injured, nephew." Amiti didn't look down at himself, but his hand did consciously re-fold the silk draped over his arm, hiding the red stains.

"I was, uncle. Rief and his sister are skilled healers." This answer did not please Paithos, meaning either Amiti was limping in a way he couldn't feel to make it obvious, or he'd shed more blood than the stains on his clothes hinted at. "Uncle, there is no harm done."

"When our city is in a panic and my heir charges off into battle; that is harm." The prince felt himself gritting his teeth a little bit, surprised with his own temper as he loosened his jaw a little bit, trying to incline his head and bow his shoulders while keeping pace.

"Our investigation was necessary, sir. You said as much this morning when the machine went into reverse."

"Just as I said that you should wait for a company of guards to come with you. Rafts do not take long to build."

"They wouldn't have helped." They had been walking slowly, the train shrinking but not vanishing completely. There were always attendants around Paithos, and someday they would follow Amiti around too, but there would always be times when this reality caused more anxiety than pleasure. His thoughts were interrupted by his uncle stopping and quickly turning around to face him.

Paithos had been ill during the Eclipse, he had lost weight in his arms and legs, his torso withering under the gold and beadwork of the collar wrapped around his throat and down his chest. His long face had thinned and grown rough. At least he had regained his colour instead of remaining that same deathly white like bruised petals, but there was a hardness in him now, a fear really.

"Then you should not have gone." But a King could not know fear, only ways of controlling it. "Gods don't bleed, Amiti: if you lose your divinity then you will lose the people, and your crown with it."

"I have more faith in our people than that, uncle." Amiti argued, toeing a delicate line as a few more members of the royal entourage broke away to find other ways to occupy their time. They were not wanted here. "As more adepts pass through the city, my story will fade: the truth will come out and I'm certain they will accept me." An Adept Prince, son of a Warrior of Vale by their own beloved Princess Veriti. He would not be quite the god anymore, but that would only make the rest of his accomplishments a little more-

"You're certain." His tone was flat, hard, almost dismissive. It interrupted Amiti's thoughts and warned him loudly to mind his hopeful words.

"Yes, Your Majesty." He was far too close to that dangerous line the Eclipse had carved across his uncle's court. It was difficult to back away, but a proper statesman spoke in circles, never straight lines of retreat: "I'm certain that your leadership and rule have inspired trust in the people. Trust that I will do my best to honour."

"See that you do, Amiti: honour me, and do not bleed."

Yes, sire.

* * *

**Trying to fix the thing... next update in a few days however, I made this one because no one gets an alert for replacing content!**


	3. Filthy Colours and Soft Footsteps

**Cursed Kolima, Ayuthay, 528491!**

* * *

_**Barai**_

Filthy Colours and Soft Footsteps

Although they did not argue, Amiti was not called to sit in court by his uncle's side that afternoon. King Paithos excused him to clean up and eat for a few hours, finally summoning him back along with the other three adepts to give their report. His mood seemed slightly better for the time apart, something Amiti was thankful for as his uncle kindly dismissed the attendants from the chamber, keeping only Ayuthay's elders present so they could understand the scope of what had happened.

Amiti's letter to Baghi had been sent to Passaj that morning before their expedition to the temple, so they expected it would take a week at the least before they could begin to hope for the messenger to return with an answer. There were a range of estimates on how long it would take the new bowl to be completed as well, so a lot would be riding on Baghi's letter.

As for Arcanus... Alex...

"He said he was looking for something, so he can't have it yet."

"Which begs the question of what that something is..." The captain's expression was grim as the meeting continued, and as much as Amiti tried not to notice it, he and his uncle continued trading solemn looks the entire evening.

"The captain tells me you did something to distract this rouge adept, nephew." Amiti straightened up a little as he was addressed, the four of them still standing while Paithos remained high on his throne. "He _also _tells me that this is no easy feat." Instead of answering right away, the prince found himself looking at Piers again- their conversation had been brief in the temple.

"Even before the Golden Sun Event, Alex was an extremely talented and powerful adept." Piers addressed his words to Paithos, but the explanation was for all of them. "No one ever really knew where he found his power to begin with." His expression was still grim, but then Rief spoke up as well.

"My mother sometimes told us of how he just changed one day. He was our grandfather's apprentice and then, just before Mercury Lighthouse was fired, he suddenly gained the ability to teleport and perform other amazing feats."

"He was always quite serious too." Nowell agreed, wearing her own clothes again with her wide blue skirts extending all the way down past her ankles, the thick woolen bodice had lost its sleeves at least. "Not someone who could be distracted. I mean, he even dropped his argument with you, Captain." Piers nodded again, but his face didn't lighten, it just looked like he was carrying an even heavier burden. How long had he, and perhaps the other Warriors of Vale, been carrying it around?

"You're holding us in suspense, nephew. What did you say?"

"I merely corrected him, Highness." Looking at the others, his face was sincere, but he made sure not to look at the captain. At least not right away. "He assumed I was you son, and when I realized he was fighting against the captain I invoked my mother's name instead. The way he's been described to me..." Here, a nod to Nowell and Rief, then a much slower one towards Piers. "I didn't think he'd expect a correction. Still, I think the effect might be exaggerated. Captain Piers _is _a Warrior of Vale, someone who witnessed the firing of all four mythic lighthouses and then witnessed the Golden Sun Event first hand. My comment might have helped, but only just."

"Ah, I was only there for two of them..."Piers interjected softly, "But I see your point." Not that his expression meant he agreed with it. It was something at least.

"Regardless, Ayuthay owes all of you a debt of gratitude." Spoken in a rousing voice, Paithos stood and the rest of the attendants followed. It was clear the king had had enough for one day. "And the least we can do is provide you with the best sleep possible. Tonight we shall keep a close watch over the city and have a special squadron focus on protecting Barai Temple and the Alchemy Well. Captain Piers, Lord Rief, Lady Nowell, good night." At last...

* * *

And yet somehow... it was no good. Hours after the lights had been doused and the city was wrapped in slumber, Amiti was still awake. He knew better than to go wandering the halls at this hour, especially with the soldiers on edge, but there was nothing to do in his apartments.

He'd gone to bed with another headache and woken up with a worse one before Luna reached her zenith, and he just couldn't understand it. The air wasn't too hot, there was even a breeze moving the silk drapes which surrounded his patio-style sleeping quarter. He just couldn't sleep. After his fight and his injuries, and then the strain of having those wounds healed all at once, he should have been sound asleep; should have nodded off sitting at his uncle's throne…

And he was even in his own apartments: there was no reason for the difficulty. During the invasion Amiti had, obviously, slept downstairs, hidden deep within the palace's unique underbelly. But he had been raised in his mother's chambers which were half outside, and he'd returned to them now that the dangers had all passed. In Ayuthay's heat it didn't make sense to hide indoors, and Princess Veriti had been very connected to what had once been the only real garden in the city. Surrounded on three sides with half-walls and columns, privacy was granted both by the flora that grew up almost inside the chamber, and the high stone wall which sectioned off this area from the rest of Ayuthay's green sprawl.

The silks, the trinkets, the gold, the crown, the bracers, the belts... He'd taken all of it off when he climbed into bed the first time, keeping only the Insight Glass in its pouch and attached to his pants, tucked just inside so there was no way he could lose it or have it removed without knowing. Tyrell had teased him about it once, but the others had understood and helped defend him against the Martian's teasing. When sleep abandoned him, he took to the garden.

He was sitting with his back against one of the columns, one leg dangling on either side of the half-wall wall as he tugged one sheet of silk away from the window so he could look up at the moon.

She was full again, so soon after the Eclipse, but at least the malicious malicious nature of her gaze had faded away. People were still wary of the moon but not as scared of it as they could have been; maybe it was the futility of running from heavenly bodies that helped temper the fear. Or maybe it was just the soothing paleness of her face...

_'Mm... Don't go there.'_ A different pale face came to mind and Amiti quietly set the comparison aside. Nothing good would come of it, so the prince just let himself smile and ignore any thoughts of Nowell or fairness. Except the one.

_'Quite pale for an Ayuthan...'_ Well, he was darker than Nowell and the others at least, but yes, he was fair-skinned. His skin never burned for some reason, and after the longest, hottest portion of the summer he sometimes looked as dark as some of the lighter officials in the palace, but it never matched his eyes. No one in Ayuthay had eyes like his. Sometimes someone would be born with a deep green, almost brown in its own way, but to have eyes like his had been a sign of divinity.

If Veriti had had green eyes like those, then would Piers' gold be the reason for Amiti's pale sage?

They needed to talk...

Breathing out a tight sigh, the prince swung his leg over so he was facing the garden completely, dropping his bare feet down onto the loamy soil. A short walk would be good for him. There wasn't far to go in the garden anyways.

His hair wasn't held back by anything so his bangs kept flopping in his face whenever he turned his head to look at something. He walked alongside floral vines and around the base of the wide tree that had been there since his great-grand-parents' day. Stopping by a shallow bird bath, he leaned over the white, free-standing basin and peered down at Luna's mirrored reflection.

_'And such a filthy colour...'_ Well, what was _that_ supposed to mean? Glaring down at the still water, he couldn't even see much of his face thanks to the moon behind him, only enough of the light bouncing back and forth for him to make out his eyes and the strange, flat, turquoise colour of his hair. Another divine symbol debunked by the truth about Veriti.

Maybe it wasn't turquoise at all. Maybe it was a strong, steely blue instead? Or a deep teal? There were plenty of ways to look at it, and filthy should not have been an option. He'd never heard it there before. What did it matter if Rief and Nowell looked like they could glow in the dark when all the lights were put out? They'd grown up under Mercury Lighthouse, it was expected. Captain Piers hailed from an _island_ of Mercury Adepts, an oasis of Alchemy in the dying world.

"Of us all, I'm the most normal." Slapping the water to disturb the image, Amiti turned away and rubbed his face with his wet hand, wishing it was just a little cooler in the warm night. Using both hands on his face now, he was tired enough that maybe he could make another attempt to sleep. His headache would go away in the morning. "Fine."

But first, he was going to deal with that warm- uh oh.

_'I didn't do that.' _Was he sure? Yes, he was sure. Staring at the frozen contents of the bird-bath, if Amiti had been responsible the water on his hand would have frozen first.

"Nowell?" No, he should have said Rief, because if it was Rief then Amiti wouldn't have to explain calling for his friend's sister. Still, there was no response, and without hesitating Amiti quickly turned and headed back to his chamber. He was not _scared, _but remaining so exposed didn't seem like such a good idea.

Climbing back over the short wall the same way he'd climbed out, the first thing he noticed as he set his feet down on the warm stonework were the gold trinkets lying scattered around on the floor. Not where he'd left them.

A curse crept past his lips, but it was quiet and he quickly got dressed again, finding his dagger first and unsheathing the short blade. He held it between his teeth as he pulled on the same belt as before, dressing in a different length of silk and making sure he slipped on a layer of armour before covering that with another shirt the rest of the wrap, and then his gold chest-piece. He almost left without putting on his bracers, but thought better of it as he armoured himself with the pleated leather, wrapping a few linen lengths around his palms and fingers for additional protection. Those along with the armour, and he felt safer.

He was silently thankful to Matthew for allowing him to keep the Triton's Ward; the garment had been resting unused in Amiti's room since he'd returned home. Now the enchanted material afforded him a bit more protection than he probably needed. At least with it under his clothes no one else would be able to see his paranoia, that was the important part: Gods don't bleed. He was not afraid of a little ice and a small mess in his room.

Properly dressed minus the assortment of gold pieces he typically wore, Amiti cracked open his door and half-stepped into the hall.

"Guards." He absolutely did not want to be caught shouting for them, but there was no immediate response. Instead he stood there for a few minutes, waiting as the time ticked by. He wasn't going to go running through the halls looking for help. And he was _not_ going to scream for someone to come. He just waited, and was finally rewarded as he heard footsteps echo down the next corridor and saw a shadow slowly form on the stones.

"Guard, over here." Feeling the weight lift off his chest, Amiti stood a little straight as he watched the shadow stop. He felt a twinge at the guard's hesitation, and then a heavy, sick sensation caved down on him as the person turned away and quickly darted off down the hall. The prince was back in his room before the footsteps had stopped echoing, retreating just far enough to snatch his sword from its place near his bed before he tore back out into the hall.

"Highness!" He froze when he heard the voice, his sword half out of its scabbard as he was fighting madly with the ties on his belt to hold it secure. Turning he saw his uncle's captain- not Captain Piers- standing there with three of his men.

The men were staring at him in confusion until the man spoke up:

"Prince Amiti, you look like you've seen a ghost." He probably had.

"Captain, alert your men that someone has been in my chambers tonight _without_ my permission, as well as the garden."

"Sire?"

"This is a man who can warp from place to place with only a thought, Captain. Keep a sharp eye and I will go speak to the king." Was it the guard's fault? Part of him wanted to say yes, but the rest knew better. Ancient Jinnei spells and puzzles hadn't kept Arcanus from wreaking havoc the world over, a few guards weren't going to do the job now.

"Shall we wake Captain Piers and-?"

"No." Causing a panic wouldn't do them any good. Closing his eyes Amiti felt his headache coming back, ripping through his thoughts and pounding out of sync with his heart. "And- don't tell the king. Nevermind." Eight Warriors of Vale had not stopped Alex, one here in the city would not make a difference. Winding Rief and Nowell up would only give everyone _else_ a headache, although it would have been nice to talk to them.

"I'll tell my men, highness, but don't you think you should...?"

"I know what I'm doing, Captain. Back to your rounds, and tell no one of this, not until morning at least." He didn't have a clue what he was doing, shutting his eyes again despite the weakness it revealed. His head was _throbbing_. Amiti finished securing his sword at his side, rubbing his forehead with one hand before he started walking. He wasn't going to get any sleep tonight, so sitting in his room pretending everything was okay wasn't going to help.

He was so intent on being anywhere but here that he didn't even register the scraping sound until he heard the guards sprinting around the corner to catch up with him, spears out.

"What was-!" He quieted them with a hand, lifting his foot off his crown where it had been laying abandoned on the floor. "Majesty?" Picking it up without a word, Amiti slowly wrapped the broad, segmented crown around his head, buckling it securely in the back where it began to pulse along with his headache. The weight was crushing his skull.

He hadn't looked for it in his room, it shouldn't have been out here in the hall.

"Tell no one."

He'd figure this out, and he wouldn't take the city down with him.

* * *

**Reposted: June 2013.**

**Leave a review, maybe?**


	4. The Morning After

**528491****, The Dream is Collapsing, Blinding.**

* * *

_**Barai**_

The Morning After

"_GONE__!?__"_

Birds scattered from their perch just outside Paithos's throne-room, Nowell watching them make their escape as the king boomed at his court. Rief had been pacing restlessly ever since hearing about Amiti's disappearance, and the captain just had the darkest look following him around. Nowell herself? Oh, she was angry, this was a stupid stunt for him to pull- prince or no prince! But she wasn't taking it nearly as bad as his uncle.

"My lord he swore us to silence-"

"I don't care if the God's themselves descended-_ I AM YOUR __**KING!**__" _The entire room shook this time, servants flinching while several officials pretended that there was something in their scrolls important enough to hold their attention. Some, a few, were watching with what looked like smug satisfaction as the rod fell. Paithos' Captain had taken several blows already to the back and shoulders, two of his own men were holding his arms as it happened. Maybe the mercy was that there was no sharp edge attached: the captain was bruised, but not bleeding.

"Drop him." The king spat, flinging the dry rod to the ground where it clattered and rolled away from his bare feet. The soldiers did as commanded, and Nowell edged closer to Captain Piers. He'd been watching with one foot up on the marble block next to him, hand on his chin and a finger running back and forth over his upper lip.

"Couldn't you have stopped that?" She whispered, watching the punished man drop to the floor, his body giving several weak spasms from pain. It was barbaric.

"It's their way." The captain answered, voice low so as not to be overhead. "And he's a parent, he's frightened."

"He's an uncle." She shot back, sending a black look in the king's direction. Some man of the people he was.

"He's a _parent._" The look in Piers' gold eyes told her not to argue, but there was something to it- that thing that said he could _actually_ tell her what to do- and that look made him fall a little. He didn't seem as grand when he calmly watched a beating take place. This was a Warrior of Vale? "Your mother would do the same for either of you."

"_Never."_

"Majesty, the prince _saw him!_" Piers was cut off, unable to rebuke her again as one of the two soldiers broke down. Nowell couldn't remember last seeing a grown man cry, and it didn't sit well with her. His dark copper face was creased and lined like old leather, although he was young, and his hands and shoulders were shaking despite being strong and firm. What confused her most was that not enough of it was from fear. Some yes, but even from where she was standing Nowell saw something far more pure in the soldier's wet eyes. He looked to the fallen captain, who was slowly picking himself back up, then his eyes moved to an empty corner of the throne-room, to the left of Paithos' throne- the king's right. Amiti's place.

How could he watch that violence, help commit it, and still love his king...? She didn't understand it. It was worlds away from Imil, but- what if it was love for the Prince, not his uncle?

"Speak, soldier." Paithos was seated again, dark and grim on his gold throne, proving for the first time the whispers Nowell had heard uttered behind silk fans and under shallow breaths. The Eclipse had changed the king.

Paithos' elaborate crown looked much too heavy for his thin neck, but he wore it with a pride she couldn't help but look at and see arrogance. There was no fear in that man, it didn't matter what Piers said.

"Prince Amiti called us, Sire, he came from his room fully armed and pale- so pale." The man was babbling a little, slowly reigning in his emotions, but not before a few clear tracks were cut across his skin by tears. "The man had been in the garden and had gone through the prince's room. We found his crown down the hall to prove it, and then the prince just turned and swore us not to wake anyone, just to patrol every room twice. He said it would cause a panic, so he-"

"So he what? He _left!_" Paithos's voice wasn't quite up to that earth-shattering boom from before, but it crushed the soldier's nerve and caused him to stand there shaking, gaping at the king like a fish. "You're saying my son- my nephew- my HEIR! He _ran away_? Is he a _coward_ to you?" Nowell couldn't watch anymore and dropped her eyes down to where Rief was sitting in front of her. His head was down too, hands twisting back and forth around his ankh, back and forth, back and forth. It was something their mother did too sometimes.

"He said the man would follow-"

"OUT!" Rief flinched at the voice this time, and to be honest Nowell jumped a little too, turning her face away as her brother quickly stood up. "All of you- _get out!_"

She wanted to grab Rief's sleeve but just watched her brother quickly go up to the wounded man's side, hands glowing as the ankh resonated with psynergy, raining blue drops of ply rained down from the staff onto the angry welts and bruises. The court was quickly pulling itself apart, no one prepared to stay behind and bear more of the king's anger.

"Let's go." She said quietly, speaking to Piers and pausing when he didn't respond, or even move for that matter. Rief was speaking to the other captain, watching the man shake his head and say something Nowell couldn't hear. "Captain?"

"You three! You stay!" Nowell turned and saw the king pointing straight at her, which meant he was pointing at Piers as well, and Rief by extension. It seemed like the boost Piers needed to wake up and start moving again, dropping his foot down off the heavy pot and stepping forward like there was nothing unusual about it. The chamber continued to empty until finally only the injured captain and his two men remained, Rief finally falling back in step with Nowell as they left. He looked confused.

"What did he say?" She whispered, keeping her voice down. Let the brute on his throne know she was whispering, fine, but he wasn't going to hear her.

"He said... he would have taken the lash if it meant keeping the prince safe." She looked at her brother and found him still wearing the same confused expression. Rief had answered the question with a statement, but it still looked and sounded like he'd asked another question. Putting an arm around her brother's back, she rubbed his shoulder quickly before dropping it and putting just enough space between them to appear formal, folding her hands in front of her and pressing down on her skirts. The heat was not helping her temper.

Paithos was red, his breaths coming in short, sharp snatches and his chest heaving with each one. His knuckles were white where he was gripping his throne. If the man so much as _dared_toblame them for any of this, if he thought he was going to get that rod anywhere _near_ her little brother, then he'd have another thing coming!

But, then the king spoke.

"What does he _mean-_" She watched it happen, and in the space of a single phrase- "-he'll _follow_?" -tears welled up in the man's eyes, the strength was zapped from his flesh, and a very old man crumpled back against his golden seat, a shriveled red body shuddering for breath and understanding.

Had the other man just been a front? This wasn't the same Paithos from a minute ago, this man was... She looked at Piers, watched him choose his words slowly. Why did he still look so grim? He'd been that way since Amiti had separated from them in Barai.

"Majesty." He began, but didn't get to finish. Paithos reclaimed enough of himself to stand up- just not very steadily.

"I watched that boy fight against the Kaocho invasion!" He shouted, but it was more like a cry. "He was one of eight adepts who fought and ended the Grave Eclipse!" A cry, a wail, she immediately thought of a parent who'd lost their young. What was the difference between an uncle and a father? "But he had an army with him against Kaocho! He had the Children of the Warriors of Vale with him against the Eclipse! _He's alone!_"

"King Paithos-"

"Let me finish!" A feral light crept into the king's eye, and Nowell resisted the urge to take a step back as the king ambled towards them, but he only came so far before he tipped back and sat down on the stairs in front of his throne, avoiding the gold. He stared at them for a moment with his dark eyes, then reached up and removed the heavy, ornately decorated crown that looked so heavy to lift, let alone wear. He dropped it on the floor like it was just a large rock, worthless. But he seemed calmer for it.

"The man who betrayed the Warriors of Vale, who caused the Grave Eclipse, is in my city." He said slowly. "Has damaged the machine that keeps my people alive and the rest of Ei-jei flourishing. He has desecrated our most precious sanctum and run amuck within the walls of my home." Slowly, the king looked up from where he had been facing his hands, numbering off points said and left unsaid. Now he looked at them. Looked devastated.

"Fighting Amiti alone, in the temple, can be coincidence." He said quietly, but not in a defeated voice. His shock, although pure, was wearing thin. "But sneaking into my sister's garden, stealing my nephew's crown, harassing him like this- this is no coincidence!" And under the shock that hardness was coming back again, trauma buffing away softer words for shallow breaths and a voice that could cut stone: |Why Amiti? Tell me why that monster is after her _son_."

Until he asked that question Nowell thought she was being spoken to still, but since she had no answer she could only follow Paithos' eyes up to Piers. Rief was standing close to her again, not hiding or afraid, but he had even less to say than she did right now, stepping slowly around her so he could see more of the captain than just the back of his shoulders.

Piers wasn't wearing the long jacket this morning, just a loose white shirt with a blue and gold-edged vest on, the same pants and boots, his headdress the same as always as his yellow eyes stared back at the king, bold. He hadn't shaved, the beginnings of a bright blue beard were clinging to his face, and he scratched the offensive stubble slowly before speaking. Why did he look at her and Rief, just for a moment, before he said anything?

"You know why, Majesty."

"I don't-"

"You do, and it's killing you." A moment before Paithos would have never tolerated interruption, now Nowell watched as the old man just sat there and let the captain speak. "How many men like me have come through Ayuthay in the last ten years? In twenty? Tell me the truth."

"Only one-"

"_Two_, Paithos." The captain shook his head slowly, like a warning. His voice certainly sounded like one. "Myself and another, and you know who I mean."

"But it was _you_ when Veriti-"

"I'm the one who told you what _Amiti_ was_._ I never knew Princess Veriti, and the Alchemy Well had already been reactivated when I visited here." This seemed to offend Paithos' world, Nowell could see it happening. Piers was clearing the air of a lot of things, several of them she had no idea about. It was almost like that entire back-and-forth between him and Alex in Barai; she felt more like a fixture, less than a player.

"That's not possible, if not you then someone else."

"Who else? Rief, what did the Waelda tell you in Kolima forest?" She felt her brother tense up as he was addressed, not sure when they'd grabbed each other's hand, but she didn't let go just because she noticed. "About Amiti, what did Tret say?"

"Tret? He..." She looked at Rief as he trailed off, but he wasn't freezing up. Instead, there was a look there like the one he got when he finally figured out a puzzle, or a riddle, or some technique with psynergy. Any minute now he'd answer with a wide, beaming smile... but the smile didn't come, just the answer. "He said Amiti was related to our mother."

"Of the Imilian line, correct?" Rief nodded slowly to the captain's pushy question, Nowell ready to say something when Piers looked back at Paithos and saw the king swinging his head back and forth.

"Someone else from Imil."

"Who? Mia? I don't think their mother came all the way down here to impregnate your sister, _Highness_." Nowell wasn't sure she heard that right until Paithos took on the same expression, except with anger rousing itself up under the red blush of his skin.

"That was _vulgar!_" He barely raised his voice, the husk of his words was threatening enough without the volume.

"But true. You're in denial!" And now he was shouting, why was he shouting? Captain Piers never shouted at any- "The Mercury Clan's northern line wilted down to two final branches thirty years ago: Mia and Alex, cousins. Now the Imilian line has been extended into three: Rief, Nowell, and-"

"_Silence__!_" Paithos was on his feet, and now Nowell _did _back up, wanting none of this as Rief moved with her. "Do not equate my heir with that devil! Do _not_ pair my sister with that devil! My city is not patroned by madmen cast down by the northern clans! Ayuthay owes Arcanus _nothing!_" Paithos' moves were agitated, hands gasping at the air and pointing straight through Piers as if he wanted to strangle and deny the Adept at the same time. "He nearly destroyed Ayuthay during the Eclispse and now he's stolen my Nephew he-!"

"The Eclipse spared Ayuthay from Kaocho's invasion," Piers rebuked, and Nowell swallowed hard at the implications that one statement carried, nevermind what followed: "The Well Alex restored kept your people alive, and the son he fathered-" _no_ "carried their hope."

"One more word, Adept and I'll see you in chains!"

"And you're in _denial._" Piers didn't shout, his voice moved like a powerful wave within sight of land, advancing despite the danger and getting ready to wash away everything in its wake. "Much like Alex himself if that settles you somehow! He misleads, he never lies; if he called Amiti your son then he believed it until he heard otherwise!"

"And now what!?"

"Now everything's changed!" It was like watching two caged snow leopards roar at each other between bars too close together. Paithos had threatened him but Piers had called his bluff, the king standing again as he and the captain held their positions despite their crashing voices. "Alex wanted _something_ from Barai temple, something he couldn't get his hands on when he activated the well twenty years ago- why else would he finally come back here?"

"The only thing we found in Barai temple was the Insight Glass-" Rief's voice was quiet, but Nowell heard him murmuring the words to himself and looked down to confirm what she'd heard. "The machine spoke to us- it rejected Matthew, but when Amiti approached…"

"Because he's Veriti's son." Captain Piers' volume came back down as he made his statement, his gaze on Nowell and her brother before he turned back around to face the king. Paithos looked no more stable now than he had a few moments before. "And raised in Ayuthay. There were once many Jinnei here in Ei-Jei, the machines probably respond to those similar signatures. Just like the lighthouses give Adepts close to them certain attributes, growing up around the Alchemy Well could easily have altered Amiti's powers."

"But Tyrell-?"

"I've never heard of a Central Angaran branch of the Fire Clan. But that's not the point now, the issue is-"

"You're saying all of this is for that god forsaken piece of glass?" Paithos hissed, his anger fractured now instead of warring directly against the captain in front of him. He was staring blankly through them now, head shaking slowly and anger making him tremble. "A bauble. A relic- a piece of this city's history and passed down from our ancestors, yes! But in anyone's hand but Amiti's it's nothing but a black piece of slate! He terrorized my city and chased off my heir for something so useless!?"

Nowell did not know Amiti as well as her brother or King Paithos did, but she could already hear the way the Prince would have leapt to defend the relic entrusted to him by the machine. It would have infuriated him to hear this, maybe even wounded him after the way the Glass had, according to Rief, almost validated Amiti's presence in their small party until the self-taught Prince came into his own with his psynergy. She didn't want to hear this any more than Rief who had actually pulled his lips into his mouth and was biting down.

"If anything he probably left to keep Alex _from_ terrorizing the city." Piers stated, his tone slowly calming down as the conversation continued, unlike the furious monarch drilling holes through the walls with his eyes. "King Paithos be reasonable-"

"Reasonable?" The king snapped, "That stubborn boy is the one who needs reason! Fleeing with his tail between his legs instead of giving up a treasure worth less than the gold decorating it!"

"Useless like the orbs that opened the road to Apollo Sanctum?" Captain Piers' voice stung again, cutting as deeply as it dared. There was a warning wrapped up in his words, and it didn't take a tender ear to hear it. "Do not underestimate the Jinnei and the weapons they left behind, Highness. I've seen the entire world condensed into jewels so small and docile you could wrap your hand around two at a time, or carry them at your side in a mythril bag." If they were correct, then Amiti had been right to get the Insight Glass out of the city where Arcanus could wreak havoc.

It took a certain breed of courage and selflessness to draw away a threat like Arcanus, but Nowell couldn't help but admit to herself how it took a tragic breed of foolishness to attract the threat on your own.

"He should have taken one of us." He should have taken all three, but Nowell just pulled her arm up around her brother's shoulders, not drawing him close, but still there and holding on. Rief was shaking his head, whispering under his breath so softly that only she could really hear him. "He knows better, he's never acted like this before…"

"We'll find him," Nowell whispered back, but her voice didn't fall far enough to stop Paithos from hearing, because she felt the king bring his attention back around on her. "And quickly too: he can't have gone too far on foot since last night, so if we join the search parties then… he should turn up."

The throne room went silent after she finished speaking, her voice still cast down because those words had not been meant for the other two, just her brother whose friend had vanished and was tempting a power even the Warriors of Vale hesitated to face. They were going to find him.

But would they find him first?

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**Removed the ridiculous red herring that was here before ignore me please**


	5. The Bridge at Dusk

**Mombasa!****528491. We Built Our Own World.**

* * *

_**Barai**_

The Bridge at Dusk

It was easier to get somewhere if you were alone and knew what direction to travel in. There were downsides, of course, but Amiti couldn't fret about camp-fires or chasing down a particular creature if it wandered too close to him along the road. He wasn't even a day from Ayuthay and already knew he wasn't going to make it all the way to Passaj. Something had put Alex on his trail, or Arcanus, or whatever his name was, but Amiti wasn't going to just wait around in the palace for men to die and people to panic when whatever had caught the Adept's attention drove him to kill over it. Anyone who could put in motion events to kill _thousands_ was not to be trifled with.

There had never been any issue or hesitation with pulling out the Insight Glass before. It had been an opportunity for exploration whenever their group came across an oddly shaped rock-formation or an abandoned settlement. But unless he had to touch it, Amiti refused to acknowledge the relic's presence on his person anymore. There was nothing else he could think of that could set the crazed adept after him, so it had to be the Glass.

He had abandoned the gold-threaded pouch along with his crown and the rest of his gold and silks back in Ayuthay. He had found linen clothes that fit just fine and did their job before he traveled over the flat terrain surrounding the city's bowl-like location in the centre of the plateau. A dark blue strap of cloth wrapped around his temples and over his forehead kept his hair back, and he found it didn't give him the same headaches as the heavy crown.

"_There._" He had been moving since mid-night, doubtful the entire time that he'd had more than a few moments to himself where he wasn't being watched or outright followed. There was no one else on the plateau as far as he could see, but he still didn't trust his sight when his senses told him there was something to be wary of. Standing here now on a gentle rise, he could finally see the river, one of the two main ones, that cut across Ei-Jei and separated the three smaller territories of Ayuthay, Passaj, and Kaocho. This was the Ayuthan river: the new one brought to life by the Well which split north of the city and ran down across the east and west, hugging the plateau's boundaries.

Short of crossing the river to the north, on foot he'd had to take several hours to reach the Greater Ayuthan bridge: the one which spanned the northern branch of the former gully. The lesser bridge was hours behind him, the span which crossed the river's western arm. He'd had to come this way: fording the river on his own would have been impossible without a horse- and he didn't have one. Adept or no, he couldn't tell a river not to run.

The bridge was abandoned, a frequent sight since the Kaocho invasions and the Eclipse which had ended them, but it was still standing and Amiti didn't waste time getting down the hill, jogging up to the stone and wood structure and quickly starting up the steep slope. The bridge's sides and foundations were built of stone, the wood crossed between one to the other and provided the walk-way. Was it safe?

"You're late." Not today.

He wasn't even half-way across the bridge, stopping with a long way left to go and an unfriendly drop down into the fast-moving water. It looked like a thick, brown slurry with bits of foam on top. Winter had just ended and the mountains near Passaj were already weeping away their ice-caps, falling in would mean death for the strongest swimmer.

He paused for a moment, crouching down to catch his breath with his back to Arcanus as he felt the other adept's power resonating with the swift current below the bridge. This was... not where he'd wanted to get caught.

He swallowed a mouthful of water from his canteen, not sure if it was an ironic gesture or not before he unslung the small travel pack he'd been carrying from his shoulder. Standing up, next came the thick linen wrap he'd bought to keep the sun off his neck and shoulders. Ayuthay's basin was humid and wet, but even with the restored water from the mountains the plateau was hot and windy.

"This bridge is important to Ayuthay." Turning, Amiti drew his sword in one smooth motion, letting the tempered blue metal of the masamune's enchanted blade catch the mid-day sunlight. No more simple steel. "I'd ask that we take whatever this is to one bank or the other."

The sun was just rising up to its zenith, the wind cutting the humidity everywhere except right here against the water. The light was desperately attracted to the metal covering the one half of Arcanus's face, shining in Amiti's way as the man tilted his head ever-so-slightly to one side. Was he smiling?

There was a surge of psynergy, Arcanus not moving as Amiti looked down and saw the blue light traveling through the water under the bridge. The Psynergy moved on, unphased by the current before it rose up like a breaching whale. He locked his jaw and knees as he heard timbers splitting behind him, the psynergy rising and shattering the northern base of the bridge. The structure shook under their feet, but the stones weren't shifting- he'd only damaged the walk way.

"I don't _care_ about Ayuthay." Arcanus announced, his words holding a soft hiss as Amiti carefully took a step forward. "I care about getting what I want." As he spoke the man was tugging something free of his belt: a pair of dark, slate-grey gloves which he pulled on over his hands, the same gold design patterned onto the back of them that was blazoned across his chest.

"And what is that?"

Arcanus just smiled.

Amiti broke into a run, moving a split-second before the psynergy under the bridge surged up again and he felt the frozen water smashing through the wooden supports. Reaching out upstream, a large wave began to pull itself up, drawing in the water in front of it before smashing full-on into the forming ice. One spell was enough to disturb the other, Amiti's arm held out as he aimed a wide slash at the other adept, he was _just_ close enough that if-

Arcanus vanished. Amiti twisted and slammed his foot down hard enough to almost send himself into a tumble, pulling an about-face as he positioned the sword up against the opposite bracer. He held the blade out and watched a large piece of ice go flying past his head, slashing down to stop another from slamming into his chest. A normal blade would have shattered, but he almost thought he could _hear_ the draconic spirit inside the metal growling in anger.

Reaching his hand out at the water gushing up from the wave, he felt his psynergy clash against Aracnus's in the air before he lost the struggle. He had to back off, mounting a defense from the water soaking the bridge: it transformed into ice with a draw of his hand, arms up over his face when he ran out of time to build up a proper wall to defend himself. The airborne droplets singing in the air turned to ice, forming a cloud of hovering needles that were sent back at him. They bit into his arms, drawing small specks of blood, but the rest simply struck his torso and sparked off the hidden armour. Amiti kept moving, backing up until he felt the gravel under his feet that meant he was off the low bridge.

Dropping his arms, the sword shook in his hands as another power awoke, but he held it in as the ice on the bridge rose up into hundreds of sharp, foot-high spikes. _Then _he let the dragon roar, watching Arcanus summon a brilliant blue light from his gloves before the sword howled back in anger. The masamune's two liquid spirits leapt from the churning river-water and reached out with talons and fangs, radiating with the sword's powerful spirit. The robed Adept dismissed one with his hand, but the other caught him mid-turn and tore an angry rent down the side of his arm before folding itself back into the river.

The look, even from twenty paces, was almost enough to make Amiti's legs freeze up. He had never seen Arcanus _angry._ Irritated or annoyed, maybe, and just for that short time in Apollo Sanctum, but that was it. This was different. There was nothing good about this: he couldn't get his legs to work.

Arcanus was up-river from his position right now, Amiti had just continued backing up during the sword's unleash. He wasn't on the bridge at all, just the rocky shore a few yards from the swift current. This was a disadvantage, and one Amiti only realized as he watched the man hold his arms out and then lift them, several orbs rising out of the river before starting to spin, flattening out into thin whirling blades as they were launched at him. Amiti remembered how to run and made a mad-dash for the side of the bridge, looking for cover under the stone-work, but had to stop and just face the attack.

Sliding across the stony ground to get low, the water rushing past him slipped from his grasp each time until it was almost too late- a last wave of dirty brown washing up over him and freezing several inches thick. He couldn't rest inside this shell however, still grabbing for more water as the icy blasts from above cracked and chipped the cocoon from the first blow to the last.

As soon as there was a lull, he broke the shell open and was out of it. His mind was running slow, he could feel the incessant headache creeping up that always came with over-exertion. Now was _not_the time to lose his powers. He could not fight Arcanus with just a sword.

And then he was there again, in front of him, the river-water vibrantly blue as Amiti felt the air temperature fall dramatically. He'd appeared just under the shadow of the bridge, and now stepped out into the sunlight so the rays could reflect straight off his half-face and into Amiti's eyes. There was a difference between facing someone like this with your friends at your back, and doing it alone.

"You and I are going to have a little talk." It was much harder to do it on your own.

Amiti watched his own hands move and another wave came running up the bank behind Arcanus, the other adept just holding his hand up in a fist and stopping the assault with a frigid crackle. The wall of blue ice held long enough to redirect the rest of the water before it began to segment and break apart. Amiti struck out with the sword, feigning towards the other man's chest before he twisted the blade and raked it back along the inside of the arm Arcanus lifted to defend himself. It tore a wide gash through the sleeve and should have ripped through part of the arm, but Amiti immediately took several fast steps back as he saw the metallic sheen glitter in the sunlight. No blood, he wasn't the only one wearing armor.

The ice broke apart and was flying through the air at him in sharp, deadly pieces. He ripped another wall of water up out of the river next to him, forcing it to freeze in mid-air and form a second barricade- but his energy was draining and only three impacts caused the dirty ice to break apart and crumble. Moving his entire body along with his mind, Amiti mimicked what he had just seen: the wall came apart and the pieces hung in the air, deflecting another two near-miss strikes as Amiti got himself out of the way of the rest. Then with a quick jab of his hand, the chunks went shooting off in Arcanus' direction.

His skull was on _fire_.

And Arcanus just ignored the strike all together, Amiti swearing again as he saw the man fade out of sight and tried to clear his own vision. By the time he swiped one hand back over his eyes, Arcanus was in front of him again, advancing. They were walking away from the river now, Arcanus setting the pace as all Amiti could focus on was stopping the pain from distracting him, his hand lit up with blue light- maybe ply would-

"Coward!" Anger again, real anger, almost hate, and Amiti felt his effort go to waste and the spell fell apart around his fingers. Words were backed up in his throat now, refusing to budge as Amiti's body began retreating without any conscious thought. He was starting to go up-hill now, still away from Arcanus when he remembered the sword in his hands and had to physically _make_ himself bring the weapon up, hands on the hilt as he felt his vision blurring again around the edges. He had no crystals, he had no medicines, but now he had no psynergy.

"Repeat what you said to me." Arcanus' voice was deep and smooth, dangerous like the blue crackling along beside them. Every step Amiti took to get away, Arcanus took another to close the shrinking gap. "That clever little lie in Barai Temple, repeat it." Retreat, retreat: just keep moving back!

But the demand didn't make any sense, and Amiti's starved mind stopped telling him to move away.

Mistake.

"I didn't lie-" His grip on the sword went lax, and he didn't have the time to scream at himself for it. Arcanus' hand closed around his throat so tight Amiti immediately choked, his mind not computing the viper-like attack until _after_ the masamune hit the rocky ground. He'd dropped his block.

He should have stabbed the man as soon as he came too close, but he just let him push and push against the sword until his hand was right where it was now under Amiti's chin. Years and years of practice and experience and he, literally, choked. His psynergy flashed and a liquid orb rose from the river and shot itself at Arcanus's back- but it fell short and collided with the ground.

It splashed their feet.

This was why he'd left. The city had enough plagues: watching their prince die didn't get to go on the list.

"Repeat it." His hands were around Arcanus' wrist, clawing and twisting as he tried to fight off panic. He was holding fast, but not squeezing, Amiti could still breathe, still speak. Do what he said? What other choice did he..?

_"My father- he was a- powerful adept."_

"'_Is'._ You said 'is'." He sounded like a snake, a blue-haired, one-eyed viper. "He's still alive." What? Why- why were these the questions? Why did this matter? The anger wasn't gone from the man's half-face, but it was subdued again, trapped under all the layers of guile and simple conceit. He'd won, and now he could be as cold and distant as he pleased. _Now_ the man was crushing his throat.

_"Yes-" _He couldn't nod like this, but tried for some reason. Was he pleading?

"_And_..."

"_My mother-"_ Squeeze... "_Princ- ess -"_ Squeeze... "_Ver-i-ti."_

"_Liar."_

The force of the teleport added to the nausea and panic creeping into his body and caused his insides to twist. Bile burned up his constricted throat until it dribbled out past his lips. Amiti couldn't see, pain rimming his eyes as they started to roll before a horrible pain snapped him back. The ground was gone, there was no support for his body, just those fingers around his neck and his hands grasping and clawing back at Arcanus's arm. The grip was hard as iron and twice as cold: there was ice coiling around his head, he could feel it cutting across his skin. It didn't make the stress on his neck any better, and he wanted to just scream at the forces crushing his skull.

His vision just enough that Amiti found himself back on the bridge, right where the planks ended and the walkway opened up to the churning river below. Only his grip on Arcanus' arm was keeping him from placing every ounce of weight right on his neck.

"The truth, boy_."_

"_Ver-"_

"_Do not lie to me!"_ He couldn't shout back, he couldn't do anything except shut his eyes and try to shut out the pain as he was shaken roughly. There was a blackness overcoming him from the pain and the fatigue. His psynergy was not coming back. What was he supposed to do? This man, he- No, no he would win but Amiti wouldn't give him satisfaction from it. "I expect the _truth-"_

Amiti spat at him, watched it strike the polished metal mask.

Alex dropped him.

* * *

Amiti didn't fall into the river: a beam protruding from the shattered underbelly of the bridge caught him instead. It scraped right up his torso from stomach to chest, breaking ribs by the time he got his hands around it and kept himself from just sliding off. Eyes shut, he felt himself yelling in pain as he dug his fingertips into the splintered wood, desperate to hold on.

Hold on and breathe, just breathe and not cough to clear his lungs because one cough burned his chest like hot coals and almost dropped him in the water to end the pain. There was no way to compromise, so he just did it all at once, his legs dangling and jerking below him, hanging there with several feet left to go before the river would just swallow and carry him away.

But he could breathe, and that meant he wasn't dead.

"Veriti never married." Not dead, but not nowhere near safe etiher. Craning his sore, bruised neck back so he could look straight up, Amiti felt the ice clinging to his hair begin to melt and drip down his back. It still hummed with Arcanus' signature, if the man wanted to try anything...

"I- I know." Moving his hands, he gasped and looked down again, eyes shut as he felt the pain spreading straight around his torso and up over his shoulders. His hands were burning…

"You're telling me-"

"I've told you- _three- times!_" Something was bleeding inside, as many times as he tried to fill his lungs all the way he was assaulted by shifting bone and burning nerves. He felt himself gasping but knew each one was shallow. He wouldn't be able to swim like this. He was going to die.

Amiti didn't feel the same rush of adrenaline this time when the realization struck him. He'd acted out before when the decision to drop him had been someone else's, a someone he couldn't influence, only spite. Now it was different, now _he_ was the one holding on. He wouldn't be killed if he let go now: _he'd die._

"...Give it to me." What? Amiti looked up, his elbows and wrists beginning to cry along with the rest of him. Even his eyes were weeping: something not even pride could stop. He'd known what he was doing, but he hadn't _known_ what it would be like. Seeing Arcanus crouching down over him, looking at him with one cold, dead eye: it just started up another battle between rage and fear.

Sympathy. He didn't want to die, but this was sympathy. "The Barai Relic. Give it to me and I will spare your life." One gloved hand was extended out towards him, if he reached out, he could grab it.

"You-" Amiti let go with one hand, wincing as his body swung back and forth slowly as a result, his other arm just screaming now as the other tingled with blood at his side. "What will you-?"

"Make up your mind, Amiti." It felt wrong hearing that man use his name. "Your duty, or your life?" He felt numb inside, those weren't the words he wanted to hear, not a question he wanted to answer.

But he'd do it. Ei-Jei was still scarred by the selfishness of another prince who had chosen his heart over his crown. Ryu Kou would have to face his demons eventually, but Amiti...

He'd take his chances with the river.

* * *

"_The bridge!_" Nowell's eyes snapped up as she heard someone shouting, one of Ayuthay's soldiers riding quickly towards them over the grassy plateau. The sun was slowly beginning its descent in the west and cast a glossy orange light over everything, but she felt Piers touch his heels to the horse's flanks under them and speed the creature along. Nowell wasn't used to riding on animals, she felt sore and jostled every time it stepped around or over something, but she could finally ignore that as the small group of mounted soldiers they were with rallied and began to charge on ahead of them.

"_Someone destroyed the Kaocho bridge!"_ She half-saw Rief clinging to the back of one soldier as the group sped by, the scout wheeling his mount around and charging back the way he'd come over the next rise.

"Hang on." She felt the captain grab her wrist and wrap her arm tight around him, not feeling the same flutter she would have hoped for a few days earlier. Riding with him hadn't been what she'd envisioned. As their horse broke from a canter into a gallop, Nowell just hung on and waited for it to end, her eyes shut until she heard Piers swear at something over the hill.

"Amiti...?" She'd crossed that bridge once with Kraden and Rief, and now as they ran up to it she could see the heavy damage that had been done. The entire north side had been obliterated, the stones having tumbled into the fast-moving river, and the south side which remained was listing dangerously to one side. Something blue was resting right on the highest remaining point, not tall enough to be a person, unless it was crouching. "Oh no..."

"_Move!_" There were only a handful of men searching with them, other, smaller parties had moved out in other directions all looking for the prince. Nowell felt sick already as these men parted ways for the captain's horse, and she didn't remember climbing down before her feet were on solid ground again.

At a run, Rief beat her to the bridge's base, clearly torn between waiting for them and rushing up onto the bridge alone. She was thankful he waited, his ankh collecting energy around its curved head as he took two steps up onto the wooden walkway before turning and waiting for Piers to take the lead.

They were on his heels the entire way, which meant it was good that he moved quickly. Rief kept even pace, and they both stood wide enough apart that they could see clearly around the captain.

The urge to just run straight up to the edge was hard to control, even when they found themselves staring at Alex's back. There was blood on his clothes- one arm looked like it had bled at least, but she wished she could have seen him in the same state as the bridge.

"Where is he, Alex?" Nowell almost jumped when she heard her own voice instead of Piers' shout the question. But Alex didn't respond, not right away at least. His head slowly rose, his long hair just slightly tangled from the struggle, partially matted in one place where it looked like he'd gotten wet. She didn't know what he was supposed to be looking at, but as he slowly stood up she watched his cape draw in close around him- revealing a pair of legs on one side and the top of a steel-blue head on the other.

Rief took two quick steps forward, but was stopped by both Piers' arm coming out to block him, and Alex half-turning towards them. She couldn't see his face: only the mask was visible over his eye and cheek, even his mouth was hidden. What she could see was his hand as he slowly lifted it up just under his own chin. Hooked over his finger was a familiar gold cord, and hanging from it was the slim glass lens Amiti had showed her on the lake.

"I can see her in him, when he sleeps." Her eyes were pulled from the blacked-out relic as he spoke. His words were so quiet and carried a tender meaning, but the sentiment just wasn't there. No concern, no affection, nothing that could stop her from feeling sick as he turned his face just enough to show he was looking down at Amiti again. He wasn't moving- was he...? "Do you know that feeling? It's not what I expected." And then he was gone, Alex's form shifting for a moment before it vanished with a crack of psynergy, the man simply phasing out of sight, beyond sense. Gone.

"Not breathing..! _Nowell!_" She looked again and Rief was already there kneeling next to Amiti, Piers touched her arm gently and she quickly moved to join them.

"His neck, is it...?" Rief's fingertips were glowing brightly as he touched them to Amiti's temples, then the sides of his neck, then further and further down his friend's body. His throat looked like it had been stepped on; just one great bruise wrapping all the way around. Wary of the edge so close to them, Nowell moved herself around until she could hold the sides of his head between her hands, making sure his neck didn't shift at all as Rief finished his check.

"No, it's his ribs." He moved and grabbed the ankh back off the ground, running his palm flat over the head and igniting it with his psynergy before gently resting the long staff down lengthwise over Amiti's chest and torso. A cocoon of light slowly spun itself out of the glow, binding itself to the prince's body as Rief remained kneeling, eyes closed now and hands spread just slightly apart.

"Amiti," She kept her voice soft. "Wake up..." He was soaking wet, dirty water dripping off his hair and mingling with sweat on his face and neck. Removing one of her hands gently, Nowell quickly stuck her fingers inside the small pouch at her belt, fishing around before she came across something small and sharp. The psy-crystal was a lavender-tinted star, with several sharp points on it which she placed on Amiti's forehead. Pressing down with the pad of her thumb until she was about to break the skin, it was hard to break them down when the other person wasn't able to receive the energy willingly. "Please, Amiti, you have to breathe."

The crystal shattered, the pieces melding into his pale face before Nowell quickly pressed her hands down on his shoulders. She felt his body tense up, Rief holding his friend's legs so they were both ready when Amiti's eyes snapped open and his entire body gave a violent convulsion, mouth open, gasping violently enough that it was like a scream behind the gurgling coughs. She knew he couldn't see, his gaze was out of focus, but his hands reached up and grabbed the ankh tightly, responding to Rief's psynergy completely now as he drew in as much of it as he could: psynergy and air.

Rief tipped over slightly in response to the change, waving off Nowell's hand as he steadied himself and Amiti flipped over onto his side away from the bridge's edge. He was coughing violently, spittle and blood falling from his blue lips as Nowell turned and carefully placed one hand on his hair, the other on his shoulder to rub his back gently.

"We have to get him off this thing." She said, watching as the ankh slowly stopped glowing, Rief slowing down as Amiti's grip on the staff began to go lax.

"We'll lift him, he can't walk." Of _course_ he couldn't, she gave her brother a sharp look which he ignored. Rief was on his hands and knees in front of Amiti now and waving his fingers past the prince's eyes. Nowell couldn't see if he responded or not, just kept her hand moving across his shoulder and back, thankful that the main injuries- painful as they must have been- were only on the inside.

"Can you hear me, Amiti?" Rief was saying, repeating himself in a clear voice "I need you to tell me what my name is." He'd been unconscious, they had to know he could speak. Terrible things happened when people hit their heads and passed out. "My name." Amiti was breathing in short pants, it took Nowell a moment to hear '_Rief_', then watched her brother flash three fingers.

"How many do you see? Amiti? Amiti stay with me." No, no good. When Rief sat up she didn't have to ask him: he needed to get back to the palace. Amiti had to sleep, he'd come all this way on foot so that meant he hadn't slept at all the night before. "I'll get Piers." She nodded as he got up and left, the captain down at the base of the bridge keeping the soldiers from clamouring onto the rickety structure. Watching Amiti weakly release Rief's ankh from his grasp, Nowell calmly drew his head up into her lap, running a hand over his wet locks. At least he was calm.

"N- ...Nowell?" She looked down at him, surprised. He was still on his side, eyes open but not looking at anything so far as she could tell. His hand was touching her knee, fingers gripping the wool for a moment before slowly letting go.

"Yes?"

"...Good." And then he closed them again. He didn't say another word. Fishing another small crystal out of her pouch, he accepted the dose more easily this time but without waking up. Stroking his face carefully, she closed her eyes too.

"Good."


	6. The Broken Hand of Fate

**Altin Peak's Flood. Time.**

* * *

_**Barai**_

The Broken Hand of Fate

He remembered letting go, the sick tremor that shot through him as his bleeding fingers released the beam. For a moment he'd been floating in mid-air, the next the wind had caught up with him and was rushing past his ears. He remembered hitting the water and after that there was nothing.

It looked like a dream when he woke up, everything bathed in copper light. But it felt like a curse as he couldn't figure out whether his body was freezing cold or blazing hot. Psynergy had numbed his flesh before a spark of it restored his mind, and with consciousness came the full-on pain of his ordeals. It was only after the torrent of healing energies tapered off that he was able to feel her hands on him, something that ignored wet clothes and frigid magic. Soft voice. Calm words. Something he wanted and clung to desperately.

He wasn't in love with Nowell, just in awe. The last things he felt before he faded back to black was the grainy copper in his mouth, and the stink of river-water saturating his clothes. He couldn't hold on to those softer feelings with so much violence surrounding him.

The second time, it was easier. The room was dark, it was quiet. Amiti didn't know where he was right away, not until the scent of his mother's garden reached him on the breeze, and his eyes focused in the dark well enough to show him the columns and curtains of his chamber. He wasn't alone here.

Luna was out again, not quite as full as the night before, but still there nonetheless, her light shining in across the foot of his plush bed. The filmy mosquito nets draped around the overstuffed cushions acted like a screen, sectioning off this small part of the room from the rest of it: like the garden wall outside warding that one old patch of green. It was good, because that made it feel like a secret.

She wasn't supposed to be on his bed, and Amiti doubted she was supposed to be asleep. But he saw other things besides that. He had been sleeping under the thin silk sheets draped over the bed, Nowell was laying on top of them. He was also dressed for sleep, and she was still wearing her long wool skirt and the snug white bodice she so liked to wear. The only thing missing were the sleeves, which were a part of a short, tight-fitting jacket- he could see it on the other side of the film, draped over a stone chair. She'd been tired, uncomfortable, and had just wanted to rest a little. It was okay.

He used the moonlight to get a look at himself, a lot of his skin still held the numb tingle of too much healing. The fingertips of his one hand were swollen, signs that he'd scarred them by digging too firmly into the wood. His back and shoulders were propped up on pillows, so he could see the white wraps binding his chest. It explained the tightness he felt when he breathed, but what ribs hadn't mended already had been set.

Relaxing again, he waited a few moments for sleep, and then found himself looking at her again. She should have let her hair down before falling asleep, the two braids she wore behind her ears looked tight and uncomfortable to lay on, the strands shining silver as the moonlight crept a little higher up the bed. It was rare to see skin as pale as hers, even with what he'd seen across most of Ei-Jei and Morgal. He knew she was older than Rief, but had never asked about the gap in age. It wasn't much, he was older than them both but she still seemed... not that young? Did that make sense?

_'No, it doesn't.'_ Looking back at the wall, Amiti felt himself smiling a little at his stupid thoughts. It was easier to think about her than anything else right now. Like why he was here instead of... where he thought he'd be. Had they somehow pulled him from the river before he drowned?

Nowell moved and for a third time Amiti found himself looking at her. Her hand was out, gripping one of the pillows that was propping him up, the slightest frown on her sleeping face. She'd been sleeping with her arm as a pillow all this time; it must have finally begun hurting.

He sat up a little, just to see if he could, but before he let her pull the silk cushion away he reached and put a hand on her arm to stop her. From there, he had to stop and think. She was asleep, she wouldn't know, and it would just be a thank-you. The sort he wouldn't want to give Rief. Would it offend her? He didn't think so: he had admirers in the city, they couldn't all be blinded by royalty.

Nudging her arm back down to her side, he watched Nowell slowly move onto her back, reconsidering for a moment lest she wake up and leave him having to explain. But he felt time passing, saw her slip back into a deeper sleep, so why not? A short thank-you. Leaning over her slightly, he had to place one arm over her to brace himself in case the bed shifted, but then he just leaned down and- very lightly.

A kiss, just one, because he wanted it. Because he liked the way it felt. The way she smelled.

What he didn't want, didn't like- was feeling her tense like that when he did it. Didn't want to see her looking at him as he pulled back. He choked.

"_A...?_"

"Nowell, I-"

"...Amiti?" Not awake, but not asleep either. If he suddenly jerked back it would just wake her up completely, and _then..._ oh no... He swallowed slowly.

"Yes?" Her eyes were focusing anyways, finding his face in the dark just before Amiti felt her hand on his arm, a quick, coaxing touch right next to his chin. Her expression didn't change though: a wondering look on her face before he saw her head just slightly lift up towards him.

"...Good." Her lips were soft, but he only touched them for a moment before she smiled. A quick, nervous laugh caused a twinge in his ribs, but she didn't shy away when he kissed her again. Was this still a thank-you? He moved in a little more to find out, they could spend a moment like this without any problems. Piers wouldn't know, Rief wouldn't find out. Nothing would happen, just a moment like this, because he was hurt and he liked her. And Nowell couldn't blame him for this either, not when he could feel her arm snake up across his shoulders, hear the tiny, half-asleep sound she made in her throat. Not when her fingers brushing over the wraps crossing his back and- she froze?

"No." Huh? "Stop." Wait- what? "No. Get off."

A twinge needled him in the ribs right as she said it, slowing his mind down until her palm was pushing up against his face. Amiti felt himself being shoved away and flung an arm out to steady himself, his legs tied up in the bedding so he couldn't move any more as she jumped off the bed.

"I'm sorry? I-"

"No, Amiti don't." She cut him off, her voice harsh but quiet, facing him with wide eyes and one hand held up, pointing at him like he'd done something terrible- er, more terrible. "Don't say anything."

"Nowell, wait." She already had her back to him, pulling on her jacket and missing the first hole as she buttoned the garment up lop-sided. "Listen to me, I-"

"No." He got his legs free, his insides hurting in two ways now as he'd moved too briskly and now had that crossed line to deal with. Standing, he had only been stripped to his pants so it was alright, and he could quickly reach out and grab her arm as she passed him trying to get to the door.

_'Don't scream, please don't scream.'_ He clapped a hand over her mouth as she wheeled around and started to make a sound. Why was she crying? No, no don't do that...!

"Nowell I wasn't thinking about Rief, or the captain. I was just-" She shook her head violently and he had to let go or risk hurting her.

"Rief?" She hissed at him, but her volume was still controlled even as she stood there shaking with something that had to be anger. "This has nothing to do with Rief- _or_ _Piers!"_

"Shh- shh! I'm sorry, but-"

"No, no apologies." He was cut off again, close to throwing his hands in the air now and just giving up. She'd kissed back, she'd _touched_ back! This was not all his- "We're cousins and this _can't happen again._" -fault?

"Wh... What did you say?" Cousins? Where had this- what _cousins?_ That- he didn't- He knew he was staring but Nowell just stared right back.

"He didn't tell you..?" There was a delay on the sound, he saw her lips move, but the murmur took too long to reach him.

"Who? Tell me what?" She took a step back from him, but this time he didn't try to stop her. His head was spinning, he had to lay down again. Nowell pushed the door open and vanished into the hall, Amiti just retreated back to the bed and somehow returned to the same position he'd woken up in. Limbs straight, neck bent slightly back. His eyes stared straight ahead and found a decorated spot on the ceiling to focus on.

There was the same breeze, and the same moon, but a secret had gotten out. The wrong kind of secret.

"Please, mother, not him." He stared at nothing and begged for sleep.

* * *

"The shame of it!" His injuries and shame over losing the Insight Glass meant nothing to his uncle, because Paithos barely waited a day before letting Amiti know exactly how he felt about his reaction to flee the city.

"Uncle-" Piers, Nowell and Rief were banished from his chamber, if not told to leave the palace all together. Servants would be beaten if they tried listening in, this was not gossip, this was Amiti stuck on his back after jostling a rib -for unexplained reasons- and finding his breaths too short to argue back.

"Your ascension _depends_ on the people's support! How dare you run off at the first sign of trouble like a coward!?" it did not come to shouting immediately, it did not start that way.

It started with Paithos remembering some of the tenderness he'd once flaunted before the Invasion and the Eclipse had caged their people like animals in the core. It started with kind words, but those words had been paired with an expectation of apology and regret that Amiti did not feel and resisted handing over. He was thankful to the men who had dragged him from the river, eager to ask who they'd been so he could arrange to see them justly rewarded, but that didn't mean he would take back how he'd wound up in their care.

Losing against Arcanus had been one sore point, but losing so pathetically still burned. His sword had been retrieved and returned to its place in his chamber, but he swore the blade seemed taunted and whispered when he tried to sleep or no one else was around. How dare he mishandle it the way he had, how dare he let fear poison him against one man the way undead monstrosities of darkness had failed to faze him. His body was recovering, his pride was still bleeding.

Being yelled at like a child when the subtle words were exchanged for firm ones, cut the wound a little deeper. The stern dance of opinion and interpretation that Amiti found himself struggling in ended with screaming, it was volume his damaged chest couldn't match and gestures his heavy, scarred limbs couldn't keep up with.

"Scuttling away in the night like a bat for rotten fruit to feed your pride!"

"Arcanus would have killed _anyone_ you sent with me! Sparing lives is not pride!"

"But dying for a piece of glass _is!_"

The Insight Glass was their bane. Over the following days Piers tried to console him, to tell Amiti how to a father or an uncle like Paithos the great responsibility and honour of guarding the relic meant nothing in the face of losing him. Amiti was the last piece of Veriti left in this world, of course Paithos would have given anything to make sure he returned safely.

"It is my life to give for my city, not his to lock up."

"As long as Paithos is king it is _his_ city. In order to keep Ayuthay safe he must have an heir because not even the most beloved of monarchs can stop a succession crisis after they've already died." Paithos was not close to death anymore, he was not the same man but he was not gasping for every breath and retching his meals only minutes after eating. If Amiti had died, there would still have been time to select and train a new prince to take his place.

To honour Veriti and see her son as the future king, his uncle had never married. He kept concubines, but they and whatever children came of them were not within the sphere of Amiti's life in the palace. Servants, soldiers, clerks: his cousins would be looked after by their mothers' positions, given places of modest value in society, permitted or directed to marry how circumstances dictated. But they were not princes or princesses, and again: it had never been Amiti's business to bother himself or pry into the issue. He didn't even know how many there were or might have been. The God-Prince feared no bastard sons.

"He's my father." But Amiti wasn't a God-Prince anymore. In fact… "I don't understand…"

"Do you think he knew? Like, could he have planned it?" Rief was the only person Amiti felt he could, maybe, try to talk to about the issue, but still hurt. It still put a terrible bitterness in his world.

"I don't know…" He was able to walk around after another day of calmer, lesser healing, his body resting when he wasn't tying himself into knots on the inside trying to handle his uncle and his… lineage. It was better that Nowell stayed away from him after that unspeakable encounter. Amiti could barely handle hearing himself speak at this point, it felt like he was betraying something every time he looked at the stand holding his crown or touched the bare loop at his waist where the relic no longer hung.

"Well, if it helps at all: I don't think this changes anything. You were already part of the Water Clan, and you're still Ayuthay's crown prince." Rief tried helping him, but it just… wasn't enough. "You stopped Arcanus from doing anything more than putting the Well in reverse, and we'll hear back from Passaj any day now, I'm sure! The relic is gone but nobody died over it either: everything else will calm down."

Rief's words weren't enough, or Piers' encouragements, or Nowell's silence and distance. Servants Amiti had known since infancy brought him gossip from the city, and as he stewed and healed the prince just found himself feeling worse.

No one had thought to cover or hide him when bringing him back into the city. The people knew he'd been defeated in a battle against someone, they knew he'd nearly died. What they didn't understand was why he'd been nearing the edge of Ayuthan territory before the search parties had found him…

"Gods don't _bleed!_"

"You can't protect Veriti's reputation forever, uncle." Because that was what it became about. It stopped mattering to Paithos that Amiti's father had released the Grave Eclipse on the world. What mattered was that his sister hadn't partnered with that same madman to produce a child with strange eyes and filthy-looking hair. "The day Rief followed Matthew into Ayuthay, everyone knew."

But she had.

Veriti and Alex, Veriti and Arcanus: it kept him up all night and hounded him almost as badly as the masamune's hateful whispers. He'd never seen his mother, he'd heard descriptions and praise all his life but- he'd never _seen_ her, and then for the bulk of his life there had never been the phantom of a father hovering in his mind, plaguing him with questions and curiosities. Paithos had raised him and taught him everything he had ever needed, Rief had opened his eyes to a Clan and tradition he'd never fathomed existed or that he was somehow, distantly, a part of.

Alex of Imil had just been a black mark on that distant Clan's history, not something Amiti should ever concern himself with beyond the general knowledge; the origins of the man who'd almost destroyed the world.

The origins of a mass-murderer whose son was going to inherit a rich, psyngergy-powered kingdom.

A son who had been all but destroyed in two fights against that man, suffering more from his own inadequacy with psynergy than from anything Arcanus himself had done to him.

His father was a man who kept empires in his pocket: Morgal until Sveta's assumption of the throne, Sana and Kaocho through their warring and political plays. Could he afford to watch Ayuthay follow the same path? Would he forgive himself if happened at all?

The headaches always came just in time to stop him from answering those questions.

* * *

"A word, uncle." After four days spent in misery waiting for his uncle to share the ordeal with their people, Amiti was finally permitted back into the throne room to sit before and speak with the court members. His back was left stiff from being seated on the stairs too long next to the throne. His cushion on the marble steps worn flat from the hours spent discussing Alex. Discussing the theft of the Insight Glass. Discussing Amiti himself.

He'd said very little this morning, eaten less than a handful of the fruits and delicacies paraded past the courtiers for their breakfast. A few dates, a sip of water. It was more than Nowell had had at least, she hadn't appeared yet and most of the servants would be too interested in the new gossip surrounding Amiti to be very prompt about serving her a private meal. Rief had come in looking anxious, a little worried even, and had stared relentlessly at Amiti until the prince had finally made eye-contact. A quick sign for them to speak later was answered with a nod, but, Amiti wasn't going to keep the appointment. He felt Piers watching him and stared back boldly before requesting that his uncle give him a private audience.

"The floor is yours, nephew."

Not responding right away, Amiti was looking at the room in front of him, from this perspective seated at the king's right. He could see out the wide gap in the columns which opened up to a view of the lake and the city beyond. The dry-season flowers were blooming, hanging heavy on the vines twining around almost everything in the throne room, minus the seat itself. It was late in the morning, or early afternoon, depending on how hungry you were. Amiti wanted to remember this moment, and stood up slowly after capturing it.

Stepping out into the middle of the floor as was customary, he knew he was being formal but didn't change his approach. He'd made up his mind already, so now it was just a matter of seeing how it all came about. He was blunt.

"Your majesty, I would like to formally renounce my claim to Ayuthay's throne."

Silence. The room had been quiet to begin with, but there wasn't even the slightest murmur from the hall beyond them. Paithos was watching him closely, a limp smile on his face.

"What?" He sounded like he was trying to laugh a little, at a joke.

"I feel it's for the best, Sire." The king sat up straight in his throne, correcting his posture where he had been reclining on one arm for most of the morning's session. For the heat his uncle only wore the long white wrap around his legs, decorated with an elaborate gold belt which came down past his knees. No shirt, and no other ornaments save his gold crown and its plume, and one fat golden ring on his finger.

"Explain." He said slowly, watching him with eyes that held a stern warning. "How is leaving Ayuthay without an heir '_for the best'_?" There were two ways of answering that, so choosing one wasn't easy.

"There are other heirs." The other way had been safer, but drawing this out would not-

"None of whom are _legitimate_, Amiti."

"And I'm no different. Highness." He reigned his voice in as soon as he heard it rise, the warning look increasing in severity.

"I've heard enough." Paithos rose, shaking his head slowly and chuckling towards the handful of people permitted to stay in the room- Rief, Piers, several of his uncle's highest officials... "You have had a very traumatic week, nephew, you don't know what you're saying."

"I do-"

"Do not interrupt me, Amiti." A sharp sting was tied to the words, Paithos' eyes boring two dark holes into him where they stood facing each other. "You will be protected from Arcanus. You will remain in the Core as prescribed by my court, and henceforth you will serve as guardian of the Alchemy Well. _Permanently._ It was your mother's duty to Ayuthay, and it is time you took it on yourself. Do you understand?"

Amiti didn't answer. He cast his eyes down to avoid having them read, but he knew there were other ways for his anger to come through. He just didn't know who it was directed at exactly. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked up to see his uncle standing over him. The man was _smiling._

"I'm not so old that I've forgotten what it's like to hate walls, Amiti. But this is your life, Ayuthay is your life, and you can't run away from it." And with that the king walked away, giving a dismissive gesture to the servant boy with the fan before nodding to the remaining courtiers. The motions were scripted: the people in the hall needed time to get away and amuse themselves elsewhere before the king appeared. "Your ascension to the throne was decided the day you were born, nothing will change that now."

_'Speak.' _He had to say it, had to. Clasping his hands behind his back, Amiti dropped his head and then lifted it again, looking first to the throne in front of him, then higher to the ornate ceiling overhead. Cherubs and tree-branches, the divine and the natural, that was what was important to Ayuthay spiritually. Divinity. Did they still care about it even if it was a lie? They had _discussed_ Alex, the court had _dictated_ what would be done about it, but it hadn't been explained to them. They didn't know why Amiti had been targeted, they believed the swill Paithos fed them about his god-like nature.

"So you condone my father's actions, Uncle?" From the corner of his eye Amiti saw Rief approaching him, not sure what he wanted to say but turning his head to see the king's reaction. "You agree with him?" Paithos froze, a look he'd seen so rarely crossing the older man's face.

"_Bite your tongue._"

"You'd make his son a king, what greater honour is there?" Rief vanished from his peripheral vision, Piers' voice registering as a low murmur before the younger adept was gone. In a way, it was good. He didn't need his friend to watch this. His cousin. Whatever he was. Turning slowly, Amiti squared himself towards his uncle, letting Paithos stare at him and accept his defiance.

"I honour _Veriti._" Breathe. Speak clearly.

"A waste of time, your sister was a whore."

"_Amiti!" _He didn't flinch at Piers' voice, he refused to acknowledge it.

_'Don't let them see your heart, let them sense only the voice you want them to hear.'_ Speaking to one man was no different than performing in front of an entire crowd. Breathe.

"Stop this, I know what you're trying to do." The captain was there before Amiti could speak again, before Paithos could breathe and restore colour to his pale face. He felt them both staring at him, his uncle in muted shock and the captain with open hostility. "You're being juvenile, Amiti."

"It is not your place to judge me, Captain Piers." He did not take his eyes off Paithos as he spoke, waiting for his uncle to say something.

"But it is my place to council monarchs. King Paithos-"

"My father is the one responsible for the Grave Eclipse," Amiti interrupted, speaking over the captain and ignoring the hand the older adept had placed on his arm "The event which wiped out entire towns, massacred cities, and displaced _thousands._"

"_And_ for the revival of the Alchemy Well!" The king announced, coming back to himself and giving a sharp gesture towards Piers, dismissing him completely. The captain didn't go, but he was forced to remove his hand from Amiti and step aside as Paithos moved forward. "Say what you will of that, but you've relied on Ayuthay's waters every day of your life-"

"A life that began when he seduced my mother-" The king's only weakness was family, his nostrils flared and lips pinched so tight Amiti expected to see his teeth rip through at any moment. "-so that he could get _near_ the machine to begin with: opening the door to the Eclipse."

"Which ended the Kaocho invasions, _once and for all!_" Amiti felt himself leaning back to get away from the scream, but quickly straightened his spine. It brought the two of them almost eye-to-eye with one another, but they were seeing completely different things.

"And proved you a coward." He saw a flash of disbelief, and then a rising up of pure fury. "You didn't step outside _once_ for the entire-" And braced just before Paithos' fist sent him half-way to his knees on the floor.

"Your Majesty please-" Piers was trying again, Amiti reclaiming his feet quickly, one hand pressed over the sore, aching part of his face just below the eye, next to the temple. He could feel the imprint of Paithos' heavy ring stamped into his skin.

"_Guards! _Don't you touch me!" The captain's hand was violently slapped away from Paithos, the king turning on him for a moment now as Amiti regained his composure. "Your power gives you _no right_ to challenge me in my own court, Foreigner! _Get out!_" Looking away so he wouldn't have to see Piers' face, he heard the captain murmur a swift apology before he turned and left, passing two guards on his way. Rief was back, Nowell was with him and holding his hand tightly. They both looked confused.

"And you-" Amiti looked back at Paithos, he had to, he'd made his point. "I should have you _whipped."_

"You should." His voice was low, trying to make the words submissive now. "And if you would choose another heir, I would return in peace to the Well my mother once guarded." Reaching up behind his head slowly, he undid the back of the crown again, probably for the last time, and slowly held it out with both hands. "But I cannot be king." Because Ayuthay was his life, and if a bastard was going to rule after Paithos then he couldn't just stand by and let it be Alex's.

"Then I will." The crown was snatched out of his hands and the weight was just a memory. If he touched it again it would be on someone else's head, not his. "Guard." The two soldiers who had been called looked torn, it wasn't likely that they'd been close enough to hear the argument, only their summons, and they were looking quickly back and forth between Amiti and his uncle. The king's face looked like a piece of red stone now, his chest rising and falling deeply each time, but in smooth, even breaths.

Amiti lowered his eyes respectfully to the floor, finding his own centre now as he felt how tightly his one hand had been gripping his wrist behind his back. But he'd done the right thing, he knew that. And Paithos would come to realize it as well. Maybe in a few days, when the king was calmer, they would talk.

"Fifteen lashes." Wha- Fifteen? He- "In the core." In public? Ascension was a private-

"You are no longer prince, as requested." Too far, Amiti had gone too far. The knowledge was like cold water filling his lungs as Paithos stepped up in front of him again, staring down at him despite their matching height. "You will be whipped, as suggested." He'd crossed a fatal line, he'd miscalculated, he'd- "But you will _not_ return to the Alchemy Well."

It almost felt like a dream, it came upon him so suddenly that he almost wanted to laugh. Was he hearing this? Was it real? Paithos had changed after the Eclipse, something about him had shifted- had changed. Captain Piers had told him his uncle denied Arcanus' involvement in Ayuthay, but here in a breath he'd praised the Eclipse for destroying their enemies while the people hid in a shelter provided by the man who'd unleashed death on the world.

He was asleep. For what Amiti'd said his uncle would surely hit him, strike him with the rod and bar him from court. Maybe he would even throw him from the palace, lock him in the Well like a prison sentence for his disrespect and cruel words. He needed Paithos to get mad, he had to offend him: he had to do whatever it would take to convince his uncle to take the target down off Ayuthay's walls, to give the crown to someone who could protect their city and not weaken her against whatever those strange Adepts from Apollo's Sanctum were still hiding and preparing for.

But this-

Not like this.

"You will stop at nothing to destroy everything your life has been built on." Amiti was on his knees, he didn't know if he did it himself or if Paithos signalled for him to do it. He felt cold, worse than the river, worse than the ice. His body was clammy, like he was running some sort of fever, nausea- he was going to be sick. "So be it. Go bleed before the people and watch how fast the gold turns to lead around your neck."

He could see Paithos' hand held out to him through the sudden blur, the ring presented to be kissed obediently. Amiti leaned in- but then the king whipped his hand away and struck him across the face instead. He caught himself on one hand, his skin torn by the ring and burning angrily already, but when he turned his face he couldn't see Rief or Nowell anywhere.

"Arcanus' _spawn._" They'd left. He'd over-shot. He'd done this to himself.

"When you're finished with the Exile," Exile, no, anything but that- "Give him food, and water, then escort him out of the city." Paithos' voice was a venomous drawl, something only half-audible now. Fading. _"And __bring me…"_

Amiti felt strong arms wrap around his shoulders, felt himself being hoisted up by two people who didn't know whether to drag or to help him. His head wasn't hurting, why was that? Someone was crying before they even descended into the core, begging forgiveness. Amiti was bleeding, he was going to bleed even more. He had just been banished.

He had just been… exiled.

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**IT'S STILL NOT VERY GOOD? But it's much better than the original version. **

**Thank you very much for reading along! The continuation of this story is titled "Imil", which I will be rewriting once I get another wave of motivation like I did with this. Please drop a review below, and thanks again for your time!**


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